Bruschetta in a jar

Bruschetta in a jar: tomatoes in dry white wine with basil and oregano.

Open a jar, drain, and serve on toasted Italian bread with a good Italian cheese and a drizzle of fruity olive oil.

It’s best served, some feel, using day-old bread, with a young olive oil and a glass of relatively young wine. The old Italian proverb about serving bruschetta is “day-old bread, month-old oil, year-old wine.”

Some feel the name “bruschetta” comes from the Roman dialect word “bruscare”, to “roast over coals”, referring to toasting the bread.

Tuscan-style bruschetta is simple, with the bread simply brushed with olive oil and rubbed with a clove of garlic before toasting. Neapolitan-style adds the tomato.

This recipe is from the Ball / Bernardin Complete book.

The recipe

Jar size choices: Quarter-litre (1/2 US pint / 8 oz)

Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning

Yield: About 6 quarter-litre (half-pint / 250 ml / 8 oz / 1 cup) jars

Headspace: 2 cm (1/2 inch)

Processing time: 20 minutes

 

Reference information

How to water bath process.

How to steam can.

When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.

For stevia, Better Stevia liquid stevia was the stevia used.

Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.

 

Recipe notes

• You need about 2 kg (5 lbs) of tomatoes (if plum type) before prep.
• To confirm, you don’t peel the tomato, and you don’t need to seed it, though you may seed it if you wish. Don’t peel it, though, or they will fall apart in the jar.
• The book notes, “Plum tomatoes work better than globe tomatoes in this recipe, as their flesh is firmer and holds its shape during processing which is preferable….” They note that if you have to use regular slicing tomatoes, after chopping them let them drain in a colander for about half an hour to get some liquid off.
• While it’s true that often tomatoes for canning need to be peeled for safety because the recipe writers only tested for tomatoes with the peel off (most of the bacteria is in the peel), here the recipe writers have tested for the peel being on, so it’s safe (note as well the high acidity level.)
• We had white balsamic vinegar to hand, so we used to that for a clearer look. The recipe writers probably would have used regular dark balsamic vinegar.
• There are some reports from people that adding Pickle Crisp (aka calcium chloride) to chopped tomato products helps the tomato pieces stay a bit firmer and retain their shape better. Commercial canners of diced tomato products, certainly do. We’d added it as optional here in case you want to try it and see if you think it is worthwhile.

 

Recipe source

• Kingry, Judi and Lauren Devine. Ball / Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving. Toronto: Robert Rose. 2015. Page 223.

Modifications made:

• Sugar-free alternative choice;
• Optional Pickle Crisp suggestion.

 

Nutrition information

Regular version

Per two tablespoons:

• 12 calories, 2 mg sodium

 

Sugar-free version

Per two tablespoons:

• 11 calories, 2 mg sodium

 

* Nutrition info provided by http://caloriecount.about.com

* PointsPlus™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.