Sweet Pepper and Green Tomatoes Marmalade

Lately At the markets, there are so many varieties of tomatoes it?s mind blowing. They look amazing?so colorful, so sometimes I get them just for their looks. Yes I?m that futile?Looks are very important to me. I buy books sometimes without even reading the excerpt just because the cover is pretty. And wouldn?t be different at the FM, sometimes I just can?t resist some prettiness. And that?s exactly what happened with these sweet little peppers and the green tomatoes. They looked so cute and colorful, so for a minute I scratched my head in front of the stand, thinking what to do with them. And then I asked the lady who was selling them, what could I do with that, and she smiled and said? make marmalade. You see you have to talk to your farmer they are full of genius. So, if you ever flustered thinking, ?what should I cook today?, I?m sure you?ll find some interesting idea at the FM.

-

Cut the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds and core, chop into small dices. Zest the lemon and juice it, cut the sweet peppers in thin slices. In a large bowl combine tomatoes, lemon zest, lemon juice, peppers, sugar, salt. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Put the mixture in a large nonreactive pot, cut vanilla beans in half and scrape the seeds into tomato mixture. Add the scraped bean as well. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Lower the heat and simmer until marmalade has thickened.

* I added half Habanero chili in mine, coz I like it hot. It?s a great appetizer to spread on savory corn muffins or on a toast with some prosciutto. Enjoy.