We’re not very good at growing tomatoes. It’s not our fault! While we have a big garden, it doesn’t get full sun because our neighbor has two MASSIVE cotton wood trees that give us the gift of cooling shade during the hottest months.
This year, we finally outsmarted the shade and planted our tomatoes in the front yard where they got full sun. We have so many tomatoes! I wanted to make something different with them besides the typical sauce or blanched and canned. I wanted to make tomato jam.
My first instinct was to text our neighborhood chat group asking for a recipe, which was silly. My first instinct should have been to ask my family members who garden. My mom came through with the win.
I had two pounds of yellow cherry tomatoes and this recipe was perfect for them. As it was cooking down, I was a bit skeptical, though. It was… not like any tomato jam I had ever tasted. When I put it on a piece of toast, my life was forever changed. I would die on the hill of this tomato jam recipe being the best recipe ever of tomato jam.
The favorite thing we put it on was farinata, a chickpea flat bread.
It was mindblowing.
And nearly all the main ingredients came from our garden.
The meal:
Farinata
Tomato jam
Slow-roasted tomatoes drizzled in olive oil and rosemary
Quick-pickled red onions (thinly sliced, covered in white vinegar with the rind of a lime for at least 15 minutes)
Sauteed kale with garlic
Cashew cream (soak the cashews for about 4 hours, drain, add about 2/3 the amount of water to the amount of cashews, a little lemon, about a tablespoon of nutritional yeast, and blend until creamy)
Mom’s tomato jam
- 2 lbs plum or roma tomatoes cut into 1” pieces (or cherry tomatoes like I did and just cut them in half)
- 2 TB apple cider vinegar
- 1 TB grated fresh ginger root
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp cumin
- ¼ tsp smoked paprika (I put in ½ tsp for a more smoky flavor)
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- 2 tsp honey or dark brown sugar (I used honey)
Combine, bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until thickened, about 2 hours.
My addition: use a potato masher near the end to help break up the tomatoes more. Once it’s thickened, dump the jam into a food processor or Vitamix to blend it all up and fully get ‘rid’ of the tomato skin.
Refrigerate or freeze. Don’t can – not acidic enough!
Good for about 3 weeks in the fridge.
Farinata*
8 ounces besan (garbanzo bean flour)
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons EVOO
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp dried rosemary (optional)
Mix the besan and salt together, then whisk in the water gently. Cover it and let sit for 4 hours. (yes! 4 hours! plan ahead! the besan needs to separate from the water and that takes time!)
Preheat oven to 550ºF or pre-heat with the broiler on low.
Put the EVOO in a 12-inch cast iron skillet.
Skim off any foam from the besan/water batter, mix the batter until combined, then pour it into the hot skillet until the oil sits ontop of the batter.
Sprinkle the salt and rosemary over the top.
Put it in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes.
It’s done when the middle doesn’t jiggle.
Remove from oven, let rest, and enjoy!
Bonus!
A couple weeks later we took nearly the same ingredients and made a ‘pizza,’ mixing our homemade garden pesto with the tomato jam and plopping the cashew cream on top after it came out of the oven.
Highly recommend.
Now At A Farm 