Tomato preserved in a bottle


Difficulty: needs some practice. Preparation time: 30 mins.

Ingredients (makes 4 servings)
  • This way to preserve tomatoes for winter has been used traditionally in Alginet (Spain) where this variety was widely cultivated in the 50’s and 60’s
  • Use only tomatoes that are overripe or blemished but select the healthy parts only (1 kg)
  • Get glass bottles or twist off glass flasks
Method
  1. Wash the tomatoes thoroughly and cut in pieces so they can be inserted in the bottle easily
  2. Pack as many as you can in the bottle without leaving room for air
  3. Cover with twist-off cover or as done traditionally with cork that had been previously boiled
  4. Put as many as you can in a large pot filled with boiling water. Keep in the boiling water bath for 20min
  5. Close the bottles by pushing the cork cap or twisting the cap
  6. Store in the cupboard and use when needed for making sauces for pasta etc.

Antonio Granell
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
My favourite tomato moment

Tomatoes are not a matter of moments – it’s a lifestyle.

My favourite tomato fact

Tomato varieties are very different from each other, for instance many get bad and spoiled in a matter of days while others may last for months in your kitchen desk and this with just due to small changes in the “genetic code” like a single base pair (letter) change in precise position of the long string of 900.000.000 base pairs (letters).

Tomato hot tip – Do's and Dont's
Do's
If it is a good tomato just cut it half through the Ecuador and add some salt then eat. If not good, then add lots of spices.
Dont's
Don’t store them in the cold and don’t choose by size indeed if your favourite variety comes in different sizes don’t choose the largest in the box.
Profile: Cuarentena
Growth region:
Alginet
Size (in g):
200-400 g
Shape:
multilocular, flattened with smooth ribs
Colour:
red
Basic taste:
intense, slightly acidic, better taste for salads when not completely ripe
Texture:
e.g. relatively firm with thin skin and good organoleptic quality for fresh consumption. Overripe or damaged fruit were traditionally used as preserve cutting into pieces that could be inserted in glass bottles, and put sterilize in a boiling water bath for 20min and then stores after closing with tap for later use in the winter