Simple Cooking: Savory Cherry Tomato Jam
By Anthony Todd in Food on Sep 3, 2013 3:10PM
Tomatoes are a fruit, or so many authorities (though not the Supreme Court) tell us, so why shouldn't we turn it into jam? No, we don't mean ketchup, though a recipe for that may be coming soon. We mean jam, complete with skins, recognizable pieces of fruit and plenty of sugar and spice.
We were first inspired to try this by tomato jams we had seen on restaurant menus, most notably at Julius Meinl and Smallbar Division. These jams instantly enhanced the dishes they were added to, be they sandwiches or egg dishes, with a savory-sweet combination that you couldn't get from either a tomato sauce or a traditional fruit jam. We just had to try for ourselves.
Turns out, tomato jam is one of the most forgiving jams we've tried. The combination of the tomato skins, the olive oil and the sugar mean that, even without pectin, the jam sets after relatively little cooking time. We planted Seed Savers Mexico Midget tomatoes in our garden plot this year, which means we ended up with hundreds and hundreds of sweet cherry tomatoes—perfect for this recipe. If you don't happen to have an inexhaustible source of the things, check out any farmers market. If you have some whole tomatoes sitting around the fridge, you can throw them in too—but if you make the recipe entirely with whole tomatoes, watch your proportions and cooking time, as there will be much more water. If you're a gardener, this is a great way to use up split or bruised cherry tomatoes.
This jam is a great blank slate to play with flavors and spices. Try adding herbs that go well with tomatoes, like oregano or basil, or spicy flavors that will enhance the jam like ginger or fennel. Citrus rind makes the jam pop a little bit more, and substituting lime for lemon would give it a more tropical flavor. If you want to spice it up, try adding fresh jalepeno or dried chili flakes—but use sparingly, as the flavor will be marinating for a long time in the jar.
Savory Cherry Tomato Jam
Adapted from here, here and here
2 pounds of cherry tomatoes
3 Tablespoons olive oil
2/3 cup champagne vinegar
1 whole large shallot, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup sugar
zest from one lemon
2 Tablespoons salt
In a large, heavy saucepan, cook the cherry tomatoes, vinegar, salt, sugar, olive oil, shallots, garlic and lemon over low heat, stirring frequently. The mixture will rapidly begin to liquify as the tomatoes break down.
Keep stirring! This jam is a bit prone to scorching. After about an hour of low-heat reduction, most of the water will be gone. Let cool (or use a chilled spoon) and check the consistency. It should resemble a traditional jelly or jam when cool. If not done, reduce further.
Ladle into 4-ounce jelly jars. Process in boiling water for 15 minutes.