Preserves! Bruschetta In A Jar!

In truth, I suspect this is better classified as either “picked tomatoes” or “diced tomatoes with extra stuff” but either way “bruschetta in a jar” is probably a more evocative description, so we’re going with it.
Yesterday, I finally got around to canning the latest 2.5lb (bulk) bag of roma tomatoes and, in the interest of flavour variety (if not vegetable variety) in our winter diet, I opted to can them as one-cup jars of “bruschetta”.
 
 
Bruschetta in a Jar
 
2.5 lbs roma tomatoes (12-15, roughly), blanched, skinned, cored, and diced
2 large yellow cooking onions, peeled and finely diced
1 bulb (BULB – about 12 cloves) garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
½ C balsamic vinegar
½ C white wine vinegar
¼ C tomato juice
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp dried rosemary (I would have liked to use basil instead/also but I’m out. Oh well)
 
 
Put everything in a pot and bring to a boil. Allow the liquid to reduce somewhat, if possible[1]
Once everything is boiling and has been mixed together well, ladle it into sterilized jars – I used a slotted spoon to do this – and top up with about 2 tbsp of vinegar-tomato cooking liquid[2].
Cap the jars and process them in a boiling water bath for 10-15 minutes
Remove from water and allow to cool, listening for the “plunk” as each jar seals.
 
Makes about two litres
 
 
One of my jars didn’t seal, so I wound up with seven cups of bruschetta preserved and sitting in my cupboard, plus one clup of bruschetta that I used in last night’s dinner. I poured it, plus the large amount of left-over balsamic-tomato liquid, over a couple of fish fillets and baked the whole shebang. It tasted amazing so I’m confident that the above preserves will serve us well over the winter. 🙂
 
That brings me up to about six litres of tomato products in the cupboard so far. I still have plans to make my annual roasted-garlic-balsamic tomato sauce (and I’ll be using a litre of frozen tomato skins and cores along with whatever other tomatoes I can scrounge to do it), but I can see this bruschetta mix – which is quite similar in terms of ingredients – taking up more and more space in my cupboard. It tastes good, and – while you do need to peel and core the tomatoes – it’s relatively quick as it doesn’t require a night spent in the slow-cooker before it’s ready to can.
Something to think about. 🙂
 
 
TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden
 
 
[1] This may or may not work. Tomatoes have a lot of liquid in them, so when you first boil them, you’ll actually get more liquid than you started with.
 
[2] The point of this is to keep the Ph level low enough to safely can them in a boiling water bath. The next time I make this, I’m more likely to half the vinegar in the recipe BUT add a tablespoon of balsamic to each jar rather than relying on the tomatoes, onions, and garlic to soak up enough vinegar to be acidic enough “on their own” during the cooking process.