Oven-roasted canned tomatoes

Tomatoes are an essential ingredient in our kitchen. Fresh home grown tomatoes with rich flavour are unique and can be eaten alone — as apples. But it could be problem to find tasty tomatoes out of season.
Fortunately, there are many ways how to preserve them so that we can enjoy them all year round. Dried, frozen, canned, ketchup, purée, sauces — just take your pick. I love season, when everything is getting mature and I can save the season in the jars or freezer.

But back to tomatoes. Besides fresh tomatoes, we use lots of canned tomatoes as well. They are perfect for pasta sauces, pizza base, soups, risotto, dips, and many more. Since I’ve found how easily they can be preserved, I don’t want any others.

I am happy to share this simple recipe for roasted canned tomatoes with you. I’ve also tried version with blanched tomatoes (shortly cooked and then chilled in cool water), but I don’t like it as it is quite time consuming and the taste is not that intense.

Ingredients (1 kg of fresh tomatoes — 0.7 l jar of tomatoes)

Preparation: 10 minutes + 40–50 minutes baking + 35 minutes sterilization

• meaty plum tomatoes (Roma or San Marzano varieties)
• lemon juice

Instructions

Turn on the oven and preheat it to 200 °C. Wash the tomatoes, cut off the stem and any green parts of the tomatoes. Put them on a baking pan lined with baking paper.

Bake until the tomato skin starts to blacken (the length of the baking depends on how many tomatoes you bake, it is app. 40–50 minutes). If the tomato peel has some brown or black spots, remove the baking pan from the oven and let the tomatoes sit for a moment.

While the tomatoes are baking, prepare the glass jars and the sterilizing pot. The jars have to be clean. If you are great time manager, manage to put the peeled tomatoes in the freshly cleaned jars from dishwasher. If not, or you don’t have a dishwasher, sterilize the jars by boiling them in water for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes turn the heat off and add the lids to the hot water. The jars will be sterilized for up to an hour.

Peel off the baked and partially cooled tomatoes. The skin can be now easily removed. If there is a problem, use spoon. Don’t worry if small pieces of skin remain on tomato. Put the peeled tomatoes in the clean hot glass jars. Be careful and remove any air bubbles in jar. Add lemon juice. For 0.7 l jar add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar. You can put up to one kilogram of peeled tomatoes into one 0.7 l glass jar. So, I recommend to make some small jars as well.

I don’t use any other seasoning than lemon juice. It is not necessary to use anything else for the preservation, and it is best to season it while cooking. This is a basic versatile version and can be used in many recipes.

When pressing into jars, tomatoes release its juices, so there is no need for any other liquids to be added. Twist the lids and sterilize jars in water. The pot should be large enough to hold more jars at a time. Place a grid or a kitchen cloth on the bottom of the pot, so the jars do not touch the bottom directly. Bring water to a boil.

If the jars are not hot, do not put them in boiling water. They could crack. Dilute the hot water with cold water, add jars and bring to a full boil. The water should be app. 2 cm above the jar’s lid. Sterilize for 35 minutes (large jars) and 25 minutes (small jars) .

After 25 or 35 minutes remove the jars from boiling water and wrap them in a blanket or towel until the next day. Store in a cold, dark place and eat whenever you want :).

Enjoy canning tomatoes.