Bruschetta in a Jar Canning Recipe
02. September 2024Bruschetta in a Jar is a great way to use up the last handfuls of summer tomatoes from your garden. This zesty tomato recipe is great on toasted baguettes. Or you can get a bit froofy (is that a word?) and add a few spoons to pasta salad. Watch out, this stuff is addictive! Serve it garnished with grated cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. I have even eaten this plain straight out of the jar. Don’t judge!
Decorate your home canned bruschetta with our Custom Picnic canning labels. These personalized labels come in 6 classic colors and print with your text for any food you put up.
My homegrown Blush & Juliet grape tomatoes.
Tomatoes
This recipe calls for plum tomatoes since they aren’t very juicy. Their flesh is also firm and holds up during canning. While plum tomatoes work well for bruschetta, you may use other tomato varieties instead. I used a mix of Sungold cherry, Blush and Juliet grape tomatoes. So my final bruschetta was more colorful. It was also a good way to use up my final harvest of cherry tomatoes. If you want to use globe tomatoes, place the chopped fruit in a colander over a bowl to drain the excess liquid. Feel free to save the liquid for your next pot of chili or veggie soup!
Tomato Seeds
To seed or not to seed! That is always the question. I almost never seed my canned tomatoes. My diced tomatoes and bruschetta always have seeds, and that doesn’t bother me. If tomato seeds annoyed me like raspberry seeds, I would make sure to remove every last one of them. But alas, I suffer from tomato seed apathy (with a hint of laziness). So the seeds stay in. Plum and grape tomatoes have fewer seeds than globe varieties. If you use juicy globe varieties, you can push the gloop and seeds out of quartered tomatoes with the back of your thumb. Or not. No judgment!
As you can see, there are seeds & skin in this bruschetta. And it still looks amazingly good. And it IS!
Tomato Skin
And what about the tomato skin? You will leave the skin on for this recipe (yay, less work)! This Ball recipe and other canning recipes will note whether skin should be removed or not. Why is that? According to the National Center for Food Preservation (NCHFP) “Most bacteria, yeasts, and molds are difficult to remove from food surfaces. Washing fresh food reduces their numbers only slightly. Peeling root crops, underground stem crops, and tomatoes reduces their numbers greatly.” So officially developed tomato canning recipes will be tested with or without the skin. Sometimes skins will be removed for food safety reasons to reduce the bacterial load. But other times skins are removed for quality or texture issues, like on the NCHFP’s tomato jam recipe. If you don’t want to peel tomatoes for jam, try our tomato jam with red wine vinegar recipe instead!
Herbs
Dried or fresh? This canning recipe calls for dried herbs. So do NOT add fresh basil or oregano. Adding fresh herbs in place of dried herbs for canning recipes would change the pH, possibly making it unsafe for shelf stable food. FYI, if a canning recipe ever calls for fresh herbs, you can safely substitute dried herbs instead. BUT you can’t switch dried to fresh for safety reasons! Good to know.
If you have a glut of fresh basil, you could also make a small batch of refrigerator bruschetta. I have made a smaller batch of this same recipe using fresh herbs to store in my fridge. That works great if you only have a handful of garden tomatoes left and don't know what to do with them!
Bruschetta in a Jar
Recipe was adapted from the “New and Updated Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving” (2024 edition) Read our book review for this updated edition!
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Preservation method: Water bath canning (or steam canning)
Difficulty level: Easy
Yield: Makes about 7 half-pint jars
You will need clean half pint jars, lids & bands, a boiling-water canner (or steam canner), rack, jar lifter, canning funnel, and wooden skewer or canning debubbler tool
- 9 cups chopped cored plum* tomatoes, leave skin on (1-inch pieces)
- 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1 cup white wine vinegar (minimum 5% acidity)
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp dried basil
- 2 Tbsp dried oregano
- 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (minimum 5% acidity)
* Plum tomatoes work best since they have less juice. You may use globe tomatoes, just drain the excess liquid before using. Cherry tomatoes can also be used either whole or sliced in half. You can remove the seeds only if you want to. It is not essential for this recipe.
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Prepare your canner, jars, and lids. Place the canning rack in the bottom of a boiling water canner, then place empty jars on the rack. Add water to the jars and the canner until the jars are about two-thirds full. Cover the canner and bring the water to a simmer over medium heat. Keep jars hot until ready to use. Adding hot food to cold jars may cause the jars to break or develop cracks due to thermal shock.
In a large, deep, stainless steel pot, combine chopped garlic, white wine, wine and balsamic vinegar, water, sugar, dried basil, and dried oregano. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat. Stir occasionally. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 5 minutes or until garlic is heated through. Remove from heat.
Pack chopped tomatoes into hot jars leaving a 1/2 inch of headspace. If you have small cherry tomatoes, feel free to leave those whole or slice them in half.
Ladle hot vinegar mixture over tomatoes. Leave a 1/2 inch headspace. Use a wooden skewer or jar debubbler to remove any air pockets. If needed, readjust headspace by adding more hot liquid. Wipe jar rims and threads with a moistened towel. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands to finger-tip tight.
Place jars onto a rack in the canner. Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Cover canner, and bring water to a boil. Once boiling, process jars for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let jars sit in the canner for 5 minutes.
Remove jars and place them upright on a towel to cool completely. Let prepared jars stand at room temperature for 24 hours. After the jars cool, check seals by pressing the centers of lids with your finger. If the lid springs back, the lid is not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.
Affix CanningCrafts’ canning labels and write dates on jars. Store unopened bruschetta in a cool, dry place for up to 1 year.
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Decorate your home canned bruschetta with our Custom Picnic canning labels. These personalized labels come in 6 classic colors and print with your text for any food you put up.
Get more Tomato Canning Recipes on our blog including our Tomato Jam & Enchilada Sauce recipes.
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