Cherry tomato season is here. These wild little ones popped up in Winter and I decided to let them do their thing. And they have rewarded me with a great Spring crop. Normally, I start pickling when I have a glut and can’t possibly use all the fresh produce. Not these. These pickles are so good, that I can hardly wait until I have enough to fill a big jar.

The good thing about pickles is you do not need to do a big batch to justify the effort. It is just as easy to make one jar as it is to make 10. So don’t wait. Get a big bowl of cherry tomatoes and get started. You won’t regret it.

This recipe was inspired by the pickled cherry tomato recipe in Ferment Pickle Dry by Simon Poffley and Gaba Smolinska-Poffley. I have foregone the blanching and skinning process of the cherry tomatoes in favour of a quick pickle that retains some freshness. And I have ramped up the vinegar content because that is how I like them.

Pickled cherry tomatoes are very easy to incorporate into pasta dishes or salads.

Pickled cherry tomatoes

Makes a 1L jar of pickles

Ingredients

Cherry tomatoes to fill jar, rinsed

1 1/2 cups water

3/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp whole black peppercorns

2 tbs olive oil

3 cloves garlic, roughly sliced

1 stem of rosemary

Instructions

1. Sterilise your jar - Wash your jar, place on a clean baking tray and place in the oven at 120 degrees C for 15-20 minutes until completely dry. Boil the lid for 5 minutes.

2. Make a small cut on each cherry tomato and place in the jar with the sliced garlic, rosemary and olive oil.

3. Place the water, vinegar, salt and peppercorns in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

4. Pour into the jar and seal. Let cool before placing in the fridge. Leave the pickled for a week before eating. They last for weeks but I bet you don’t have any left by then…

Note: If you are processing a big batch of these and do not want to store them in the fridge, you will need to heat process them. This is a way of preserving high acidity foods, by submerging your sealed jars in water and heating for a specified period of time. It is quite easy so don’t be put off. Follow the above recipe, pack the tomatoes into preserving jars (I use Fowlers Vacola jars), and heat process. Again, I use a Fowler’s preserver - the jars go into cold water and are heated for 1 hour below boiling point.