The year isn’t over yet but here I come with the very popular recipe I promised: the delicious and original tomato marmalade. It can sound a tad strange, since tomato is an ingredient usually associated to savoury and not sweet, but this marmalade is perfect to pair with many savoury combinations and especially cheese – the saltier the better -. I like to use it for a cheese table, and it works spectacularly well together with goat’s cheese in pastries. I’d love to read your comments letting me know what you’ve used my recipe for!
This time of year, between the cold, the lack of sun and the short days, I’m very nostalgic for juicy summer tomatoes. I’d like nothing more than a cool tomato salad (just choped tomato, salt, pepper, oil and a little balsamic vinegar) to transport me back to the summer nights sitting in the garden after the sun has set. Obviously these are memories of my life in Mallorca… It’s simply impossible not to idealise the mediterranean summer.
I think this is a very original touch for the holidays, as you can prepare delicious canapés with this marmalade, which is why I thought to share it with you even though it isn’t the season for tomatoes.
I used the below amounts and I came out with 2 jars of around 350g each. I kept one and gave the other one to a friend as a Christmas gift – I am the biggest fan of homemade gifts for my loved ones -.
- 1kg tomatoes (once peeled and chopped, the weight reduced to about 850g)
- 425g sugar (half of the tomatoes weight after peeled and chopped)
- the juice of one lemon
- Boil enough water to cover the tomatoes. Once boiled, take off the stove and turn it off. Put the tomatoes in the boiled water for about 3 minutes. The goal isn’t to cook them, only the skin so it can be peeled off easily. After 3 minutes, take the tomatoes out of the water (careful not to burn yourself) and let them cool. You can also submerge them in cold water.
- Once the tomatoes are cool, you can peel them. You can peel hem with a very sharp knife, although the previous step should allow for you to peel them off with your fingers.
- Optional: get rid of the seeds. I don’t do this, because in my opinion marmalade is so much better with seeds than without. It’s a matter of taste, so if you choose to do so, deseed the tomatoes in this step.
- With a very sharp knife, dice the tomatoes into small cubes but make sure not to disintegrate the pulp. With this I mean that it should not end up looking like pulsed tomato, just little cubes.
- Weight the diced, peeled, deseeded or not tomatoes. The amount of sugar will be half of this amount, I used 850g diced and peeled tomatoes and 425g sugar.
- Mix the sugar, lemon juice and tomato in a pot (on the countertop, do not heat up yet), and allow the sugar to dissolve.
- Once the sugar has dissolved, cook at medium heat watching out for the boiling not to spit. If there is foam forming on the surface, take it off with a skimmer.
- How to know if the marmalade is ready: put a small dollop of marmalade on a plate and allow to cool for a few minutes. Tilt the plate to the side, if the marmalade “wrinkles” instead of smoothly spreading, it’s done.
BONUS TIPS:
- I added lime juice as well as lemon, to add a little extra acidity.
