Special Jams

Preparing homemade jams and marmalades, as good as the ones prepared in the ancient times is easier than ever. Not just fruits and sugar as for the traditional preparations, but vegetables and spices too become perfect allies for jams and marmalades with a particular taste.

Tring new pairings is a funny game, especially when we can taste the results of our work, accompanying savoury and sweet dishes which will surprise our guests’ palate.

You just have to provide yourselves with pans, spoons and sterilized pots to be filled with jams and marmalades and follow our tips to discover the most particular preserves you can try in your kitchen!

Homemade jams and marmalade with fruits, spices and plants

Here for you some recipes to prepare some jams with unusual and tasty pairings.

Grapes and lemon balm jam recipe

Grapes are unusual when thinking about preparing jams and marmalades. The preserves made with this sugary fruit are very tasty, perfect to stuff a homemade cake or to be paired with cheeses and meats.

An original recipe in order to make a special jam combines grapes – concord grapes or gooseberry are the best – with lemon balm, an aromatic plant exhaling a fresh lemon scent.

How to prepare your jam with grapes and lemon balm? Let’s start from the ingredients: one kilo of your favourite grapes, a bunch of fresh lemon balm, sugar and white wine vinegar. First of all, cook the grapes over low heat, in a pan full of water and with a spoon of vinegar, until the fruits will be soft. Sift the preparation, then add the same weight in sugar and add the lemon balm. Cook again over low heat and bring it to a boil. Keep cooking until the desired consistency is reached.

Let cool down and take the lemon balm branch off before pouring your jam into jars.

Pears and ginger jam recipe

Ginger and pear is undoubtedly one of the tastiest pairs to try with strong flavoured cheeses. How to prepare it? You need 2 kilos of pears, peel them off and cut them into chunks, keeping only the pulp: do not throw away the skin and the core, because they have an essential function too.

Skin and core must be put in a gauze bag with ginger and lemon twist, to allow them to release their flavour once dipped in hot water. Bring the water to a boil and then let cook for 30 minutes or until the pears will be soft, then remove the bag with the flavouring and add sugar (100 grams).

Cook everything and boil for 15-20 more minutes until the desired consistency is reached. Let the preparation cool down and pour into pots, store in a cool and dry place.

Banana jam recipe

Another unusual jam is the one with bananas, a very popular fruit, even if it is not commonly used for preserves. This is an excellent idea to use in a creative way those bananas we have at home and which are to ripe to be eaten.

The bananas jam recipe is very simple, and its ingredients are: 1 kilo of bananas, 600 grams of sugar, one lemon and water. To prepare this jam you need to cut bananas into chunks and squeeze the juice of one lemon to prevent oxidation.

After that, mash them with a fork to obtain a homogeneous mixture. Meanwhile, pour the sugar in a pan with a glass of water and let it melt: once it will be completely melted, add bananas mixture and stir frequently to prevent any sticking.

Once the desired consistency is reached, pour into pots – previously sterilized – and let sit for a month before eating.

Special homemade vegetables jams

Let’s consider now jams and marmalades made with vegetables. Unusual, surprising and super tasty, they will play the main role during the dinners you will organize with your friends. Here for you some tips in order to experiment new preparations.

Green tomatoes jam recipe

Green tomatoes jam, is a very peculiar compote, perfectly going with a cheese board to share.

Which ingredients do we need to make the green tomatoes jam? 1 kilo of tomatoes, 400 grams of sugar, a bit of lemon and a pinch of chilli powder depending on anyone’s taste, if you like strong flavours. Tomatoes jam is prepared just like any other fruit jam, without any particular precaution.

The result will be a jam with a strong flavour, slightly acid, perfect to accompany mature cheeses or semi-mature and tasty cheeses.

Tropea onion jam recipe

Another vegetable jam that can be tasted with savoury dishes is the one made with red onions of Tropea. It is a very sweet preserve, perfect to be served with mature cheeses such as pecorino, parmesan cheese and provolone, but also good to be eaten with toasted bread.

To prepare this jam you will need a kilo of Tropea onions, 300 grams of brown sugar and a spoon of apple cider vinegar: you can follow the same procedure used to prepare a classic fruit jam.

Tomato of Pachino and vanilla jam recipe

Tomatoes of Pachino can be the essential ingredient for an excellent and particular preserve. The result will be an extremely sweet jam, with a nice vanilla taste. Does this sound bizarre? Try it to believe it.

To prepare this jam you will need 2 kilos of cherry tomatoes, one kilo of brown sugar, one vanilla pod and a lemon twist. Cut the tomatoes in half and cook all the ingredients with hot water for about an hour until the preparation will reach a thick consistency. Pour into pots while the jam is still hot and store carefully.

Red peppers jam recipe

Have you ever tried the red peppers jam? It is a sauce with a very particular bittersweet flavour, perfect to be tasted with some toasted bread as appetizer. You will need 2 kilos of peppers, 1 kilos of brown sugar, 1 glass of Muscat wine and a pinch of salt.

For those who love the strong and spicy flavours, there is a spicy version of the red pepper jam: you just need to cut 400 grams of hot peppers and add them to the sweet peppers.

The preparation of the red peppers jam is quite similar to the preparation of fruit jams. Once the peppers – and the hot peppers –  are cut into small chunks, put them in a saucepan and cover them completely with the brown sugar, adding the salt and the glass of wine.

Let sit in the pan for about two hours before cooking over very low heat, stir frequently to prevent any sticking. Cook for about 40 minutes, until the preparation will be thick enough. Let cool and pour into sterilized pots. It lasts for about 6 months.

Rhubarb jam recipe

The last and tasty recipe to be prepared at home is the rhubarb jam, a particular plant with Eastern origins, often used to prepare spirits and digestives. It is a really peculiar jam, because it is not as sweet as the traditional jams and it matches perfectly with several cheeses, both fresh and sweet cheeses and mature ones.

Very easy to prepare: clean the plants (600 grams) in order to keep just the central and softer part, cook with sugar (400 grams) and lemon juice for about 30 minutes.

Once it reaches a creamy and smooth consistency the jam is ready: pour into pots while the jam is still hot, close the pots hermetically and turn them upside down until the rhubarb jam is completely cold.

Preparing jams and marmalades at home trying new and particular pairings is funny, but you also have other chances to taste appetizing pairings even when you don’t have much time to cook them by yourself.

Lazzaris sweet and spicy organic sauces are an excellent alternative to the jams and marmalades here above: they match perfectly with cheeses and they are prepared with chosen ingredients coming from organic farming. Cherry and ginger sauce matches perfectly with fresh cheeses such as ricotta and mascarpone, the one with orange and chilli will flavour goat’s milk cheeses and crescenza, figs and mustard sauce goes perfectly with spicy gorgonzola and Roquefort.