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Of a thousand shapes, colors and sizes are the vegetables that swarm in our gardens in the summer season. Zucchini, aubergines, tomatoes, yellow and red peppers … a real rainbow of taste that we find on our table during fresh summer lunches. And not only in summer !
There is, in fact, a particular way to taste these fresh products at any time of the year and in this article we are going to explain the best ways to preserve your vegetables in oil.
Which oil to use for preserves? Which vegetables are best to put in extra virgin olive oil? What jars to use to store vegetables in extra virgin olive oil?
For newcomers to the art of preserves, these questions are the first that crowd the mind when it comes to preserving some of our favorite vegetables in oil. If you too find yourself in the situation just described, carefully follow our next tips and recipes, so that the best vegetables in oil will fill your pantry with goodness even in the coldest seasons.
But first…
Extra virgin olive oil is a natural preservation agent, especially useful when used in the preservation of food, including vegetable preserves. In fact, its main action is to isolate the food, thus limiting the profiling of bacteria and aerobic germs.
Despite this, however, for hygienic and organoleptic purposes, a heat treatment (of both the jars and vegetables) is considered appropriate, before and after immersion in oil, so as to limit the risk of contamination as much as possible. Sometimes, even cooking vegetables to be preserved in oil, in vinegar or salted water as well as drying can be a necessary action.
In the end, we understand that the first sterilization of jars for preserves is one of the fundamental steps to avoid risks and to bring home-made pickled vegetables to the table in complete safety.
As they say, however, first the duty and then the pleasure.
So let’s kick off the tastiest part of our article on how to preserve vegetables in oil!
1. Pick the San Marzano-like tomatoes because they have a thinner skin, wash and dry them and then cut them lengthwise.
Each part obtained must be placed on a baking sheet and sprinkled with salt. The vegetables are then dried in a static oven at 70 ° for about 8/10 hours. Then proceed with cooling.
2. Cook the tomatoes for the vegetable preserves in water and vinegar for 3 minutes. Let them dry well.
3. Meanwhile, sterilize the jars in a static oven at 150 ° for 30/40 minutes, wash them, immerse them mouth up in cold water, bringing them to a boil. After 10 minutes, turn off the heat and let it rest for half an hour. Leave to dry with the mouth facing down.
4. Proceed with the preparation of the dried tomatoes in oil. Fill the jar with layers of EVO oil, tomatoes and at the end cover everything with extra virgin olive oil flavored with Bonamini chilli.
5. Press on the preserved vegetables in oil to remove the air, leave to rest for a few hours, add a plastic tamper to keep the tomatoes below the oil level and proceed with pasteurization.
6. This step involves placing the jars in a pot, covered with warm water and brought to a boil for 30 minutes, making sure that the jars are always covered with water.
7. Let the jars cool in the same water and keep them in a cool place for at least a month before enjoying our dried tomatoes in oil.
As you can see, we have used the words “extra virgin olive oil” more than once to emphasize that extra virgin olive oil is in all respects one of the best oils to use for making vegetables in oil.
Let’s see together why!
Unlike seed oils, extra virgin olive oil has a set of properties that make it extremely suitable for food storage, including a marked tendency to oxidative resistance due to the presence of monounsaturated fatty acids.In addition, the rich presence of antioxidants guarantees the extra virgin olive oil excellent thermal stability which promotes its integrity even after the cans have been sterilized.
Seed oils, on the other hand, do not possess such excellent characteristics. Being much richer in polyunsaturated fatty acids susceptible to oxidation, they easily go rancid and therefore, they are kept in the fridge and eaten within a few weeks.
After dispelling your doubts about which oil to use to preserve vegetables, after the advice on obtaining ad hoc cherry tomatoes in oil, here is a quick and easy recipe that includes some of the most popular Bonamini products ever.
Ingredients:
• 600g of potatoes
• 300g of Bonamini mackerel in olive oil
• 280g of Bonamini mix vegetable in olive oil
• 4 tablespoons of mayonnaise
• Extra virgin olive oil “Santa Giustina” – Bonamini
• Salt and Pepper to taste.
Preparation:
1. Wash the potatoes, even with the peel, put them in a pan covered with cold water and bring to the boil for about 30 minutes. Drain, peel and cut into pieces of different sizes.
2. Combine the chopped potatoes with the Bonamini mackerel in olive oil first and then with the Bonamini pickled vegetables olive in oil
3. To incorporate, season with a drizzle of Bonamini “Santa Giustina” extra virgin olive oil, add the mayonnaise and mix with a spoon.
4. Season with salt and pepper and serve cold during lunches and dinners and summer events
And again, if sometimes you lack the time or even the desire to create your own homemade preserves of vegetables in oil, here at Frantoio Bonamini we offer a wide range of pickles; ready, fresh and mouth-watering!
PS to also help sustainability, to which we have all been paying more attention for some time now, why not re-use our jars of in oil to create excellent homamade preserves in oil when time and desire will come back to visit you?
You can find them here –> https://shop.oliobonamini.com/en/
