Spreading tomato jam on toast
Now I’m not a jammy person. I seldom use jelly, jam or marmalade on anything. I make an exception when I’m in England. When I’m there, I spread orange marmalade atop my toast or scone with reckless abandon.
In recent years, I’ve discovered tomato jam. But doggone, it’s hard to find even in grocery stores well stocked with sweet spreads. Then I’ll find it in some unlikely location. I stumbled upon a variety I like at Truffles Butchery, of all places. But what’s not to like at Truffles?
Make Your Own Tomato Jam
If you have a few tomatoes still clinging to the vine, you might want to consider this savory and easy recipe for making your own tomato jam. All you need is a couple of pounds of Romas. You’ll likely have the other ingredients on hand. There’s lots of recipes on line, from Martha Stewart’s to Mark Bittman’s. Some are a bit exotic or overly sweet, but the recipe shown here suited me just right. Well. . . that is, after I removed 1/2 cup of white sugar from the original ingredients.
I especially like this jam spread on toast, a BLT, grilled Cheddar cheese, or as a replacement for ketchup on a juicy burger. It’s heavenly smeared on a cracker with creamy goat cheese for a quick appetizer. Here’s the modified recipe. You’re welcome to reinsert the 1/2 cup white sugar I removed, if you have an extra sweet tooth.
Assembling the ingredients for Tomato Jam
I use my bench scraper, normally used for cutting or dividing dough, to scoop up chopped vegetables to add to a pot.
Cooking down the jam mixture takes nearly 2 hours.
Ahh. . . but the two hour cooking time is worth every minute.
