This tomato jelly recipe was a delicious and different way to use up some garden tomatoes that will last long past summer! We were big fans of this Portuguese tomato jelly in my house. The jelly has an inherent sweetness but not in a cloying way, and the lemon juice helps to balance it out and lend a level of bright acidity.
This requires a bit of hands-on time, but the effort is fairly minimal and the reward is worth it!
Because we’re big fans of spice, I mixed in some freshly ground black pepper to one of the pint jars and a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes and some dried rosemary to another pint. Next time I’ll add the black pepper to the full recipe as it gave the jelly a bit of zip.
The time to reach jell stage was 28 minutes but it was a humid day and even though I had the air-conditioning on, I think the weather caused it to take longer.
So far, I’ve used the tomato jelly on toast and as part of a cheese plate I served to guests this weekend. I think it would be a great addition to sandwiches or even in a tomato quiche to add another layer of intense flavor.