Tomato-Basil Jam

Love tomatoes – check.  Love basil – check.  Love jam – check.  Love tomato and basil together – check.  Love tomato, basil and jam together – Say What?

I was scanning through a Better Homes and Garden Canning magazine I purchased this spring when I came across the recipe for Tomato-Basil Jam.  It had a picture of it spread onto some toasted sour dough bread….  I had to try it.  I am so thankful that I did!

Ingredients-

2 ½ lbs. ripe tomatoes, peeled (I used Roma’s)
¼ cup of lemon juice (bottled works best for Ph levels)
3 Tbsp. of fresh basil, snipped
3 cups of sugar
3 Tbsp. powdered fruit pectin for low/no sugar recipes

What to do-

To peel tomatoes, cut an 'X' on the bottom before placing in boiling water for thirty seconds.

Remove from the boiling water and dump in an ice bath.

Drain and peel

Remove seeds and core

Finely chop the maters

Seed, core, and finely chop tomatoes (after peeling!). Measure 3 ½ cups of chopped tomatoes and place in a 6 qt. stainless steel or heavy non-stick pot. 

Use kitchen scissors to snip the basil

Bring the ‘maters to a boil stirring occasionally then reduce heat, add lemon juice and basil. Cover and simmer for about ten minutes. Still stirring occasionally.

Next, in a small bowl combine pectin and ¼ cup of sugar, then stir into the tomato mixture.  Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly!  Add remaining sugar and return to a full rolling boil.  Boil hard for about a minute (still constantly stirring) then remove from heat.

 

Skim ‘foam’ off top of mixture with a metal spoon. 

Put hot jam into hot sterile half-pint jars.  Leave a 1/4 inch head space.

 

Process in a hot water bath (boiling water completely covering the jars) for five minutes, make sure to start timing AFTER the boiling begins.

 

Remove to a rack and allow to cool.  Yield: 5 half-pints

Enjoy on some nice toast with a slice of mozeralla!