Have I convinced you to buy Pam Corbin’s Preserves book yet? It’s a constant source of inspiration in our house, most recently for this fantastic roasted tomato ketchup.
The recipe is a little fiddly, but well worth the effort – we used up our first bottle so quickly that these photos were taken of our second batch!
Here is our version – modified from the original to suit the ingredients we had on hand and using our preferred method for roasting the tomatoes. There are two stages involved – the tomatoes are roasted and sieved to create a passata, which is then incorporated with other ingredients to form the ketchup.
We’ve also made a version of this using bottled passata rather than homemade, which makes the process very simple indeed. It was different, but delicious nonetheless.
Passata
- 2 – 3kg ripe Roma tomatoes, cut in half
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- scattering of salt
- olive oil
Preheat oven to 200C (400F) with fan. Lay the tomatoes on a parchment lined tray, and scatter over the chopped onion, garlic and salt. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 30 minutes, or until the tomatoes are well softened and just starting to blacken around the edges.
Now, either process the tomatoes through a food mill or tomato juicer, or push them through a sieve as I did. Using a food mill will result in more juice, but I was too lazy to wash it up!
Roasted Tomato Ketchup
- 1 litre roasted tomato passata (or you could use bottled passata)
- 100ml white wine vinegar
- 50ml lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 heaped teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- a few grinds of black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 100g brown sugar
1. In a heavy based pot, combine all the ingredients except the sugar and bring to a gentle simmer. Then add the brown sugar and stir to dissolve, and continue to simmer gently for 20 – 30 minutes until the sauce reduces to a thick ketchup consistency (it will thicken a bit further as it cools). Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.
2. Pour into warm sterilised bottles, seal and store in the fridge. Pam Corbin’s original recipe states that this will keep for up to four months.
This sauce is a surprisingly versatile ingredient to have in the fridge. It’s delicious on sausages and hamburgers, makes a great addition to curries, and we’ve also been using it in a roasted rib marinade (recipe to follow). Best of all, it’s the perfect accompaniment to a bacon and egg sandwich!
Click here for a printable version of this recipe
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 