Tomato Jam

My parents have grown tomatoes for a long as I can remember, and this summer is no exception. They’re definitely in the “we have way too many tomatoes and not enough things to do with them” stage. They’ve been mentioning this bounty for a few weeks now, and the little voice in my head that gives me recipe ideas said, “try tomato jam.” So I took some tomatoes off of their hands and got to work.

Tomato Jam

• 3/4 pound ripe tomatoes, cored and finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme, minced
• 1 dried chile de arbol, crushed (or a pinch of crushed cayenne pepper)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons lime juice

1. Place all ingredients in a medium-sized saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Allow to simmer about 1 hour, until mixture takes on a jam-like consistency.
2. Remove from heat and spoon into a cup or pint-sized jar. Refrigerate. Jam will keep for about a week.

Makes ~1 cup

This is definitely a recipe that you want to use fresh summer tomatoes for. If you use tomatoes that don’t taste like much, you’ll have jam that doesn’t taste like much. I used a mixture of roma and cherry tomatoes. My perusal of tomato jam recipes indicated that roma tomatoes were most frequently called for, but I saw people using cherry and beefsteak and all sorts of other heirloom varieties. The fact that they are fresh and ripe is the key.

I’m also sending this recipe to Susan from The Well-Seasoned Cook who is hosting Weekend Herb Blogging this week.