Green Tomato and Lemon Marmalade

By the time the seventh day of my tomato tour rolled around, I was ready for dessert.

And why not? After all, tomatoes are botanically a fruit, not a vegetable. I thought back to all the tomato confections I’d savored: the tomato tart Tatins, the sorbets and gelées. Any would have filled the bill, but I had used the last of the ripe tomatoes in the gazpacho, and only the green ones were left. Although I had originally planned to fry them, sweet fried green tomatoes just weren’t appealing.

Then I thought back to a recent delicacy I’d had in Provence. My very stylish host served a memorable breakfast of day-old croissants, toasted until the butter seeped out onto the crisp, golden surface, then slathered with green tomato marmalade studded with lemon confit. Replicating that marmalade seemed just the thing to do with my shiny pale tomatoes.

And so I did, keeping the recipe as simple as possible and cooking the tomato and lemon in sugar just until the fruit turned shimmering and translucent. Tangier, more complex and looser than most marmalades, this one offered candied slivers of fruit suspended in a thick, honeyed syrup that was just jellied enough to spread, yet runny enough to be dolloped over ice cream, or perhaps some leftover mascarpone.

Even without the croissant, it was a mesmerizing end to a week of tomato worship that can happily continue until first frost.

Instructions:
1 lemon, thinly sliced and seeded

2 1/4 pounds green tomatoes (about 5 large tomatoes), cored and thinly sliced

3 1/4cups sugar

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Pinch of salt.

1. Bring lemon slices to a boil in a pot of water. Drain.

2. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan along with 1/4 cup water, and bring to a simmer, stirring, to dissolve sugar. Cook at a bare simmer until tomatoes and lemon slices are translucent and syrup thickens, 20 to 30 minutes. Cool completely; store in refrigerator.

Yield: 1 3/4 cups.