The nostalgia for summer fruits and vegetables has a unique and irrefutable formula: making preserves.

Cornellà de TerriIf you're one of those who dream of eating zucchini in January or would love to eat salads with delicious tomatoes in December, you should make preserves now in the summer, allowing you to capture time for enjoyment at any other time of year. And while the word "preserve" may connote a complicated technique, the reality isn't; it's simple, easy to practice at home following a few steps, which are usually the same for all foods. First and foremost, the essential thing is to have time. If you have it, you're ready to capture the life of summer and uncover it in the harsh winter months.

In Cornellà del Terri, chef Carme Picas, co-owner of the catering company El Ginjoler, prepares her favorite ingredients for preserving in her home kitchen: tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and peppers. From these, she creates a variety of preparations, from sauces and jams to preserves, always with these four ingredients, which are summery, abundant, and of high quality because they're at their peak. She shares her tricks with us, the first of which involves having empty glass jars ready, which we'll sterilize before using, meaning we'll boil them—empty, of course—in a pot of hot water. And two more tips: first, label the jars once they're finished with the date they were made. And second, consume them within a year or two at the most.

Canned tomatoes

We need to have five or six kilos of tomatoes ready. Then we make some cross-shaped incisions on the bottom of the tomato, then blanch them for eight seconds in a large pot of boiling water and remove them after this time. Blanching means immersing them when the water is boiling and removing them immediately. When we take them out, we should have another pot of very cold water ready, preferably with ice cubes, because this way we'll cool them quickly.

When they're cold, we peel and chop them into fairly small pieces and begin to place them inside the empty glass jars we have prepared. As we place the pieces, we press them down so that there are no gaps. When we reach the end of the glass jar, we pour in a good splash of extra virgin olive oil and seal the jar. Now comes the final part of the preparation, which consists of immersing the jar in a saucepan with water. This should cover its walls, but the lid should remain outside, without water. We turn on the heat and count 30 minutes. After this time, we remove the jars from the water, turn them upside down to help create a vacuum and to check that they are tightly sealed. When the glass jar is cold, we can turn it again and store it in the pantry for the winter.

With raw canned tomatoes, we can make salads, sauces, stir-fries, and anything else we can imagine needing. The dream of a summer day can be had in the middle of winter.

Canned Zucchini

Wash them, but don't peel them. Peeling and rinsing, cut four kilos of zucchini into small pieces. Set them aside. Peel five spring onions, or dried ones, also cut into small pieces. Place them in a pan over the heat with plenty of oil. The ingredients should float in the oil, which you'll use for the final preparation; you won't waste any of it.

When the onion is translucent, add the zucchini pieces; cook everything together until they've lost their water and are cooked.

Then you can place the two ingredients in the glass jars you've prepared. They should be tightly packed, with no gaps. When you reach the top of the jar, use the remaining oil in the pan. You can then close the jar and take the final steps, the same as for canning tomatoes.

With the cooked, encapsulated zucchini and onion, you can make tortillas, chanfainas, the bases for a roast chicken, the ingredients for pizza dough, or a side dish for any dish you want to eat in winter.

Eggplant jam

We start by peeling the eggplants and then cutting their flesh into small cubes. The correct proportions for a good preserve are: for one kilo of eggplant flesh, 400 grams of brown sugar, the zest and juice of one lemon and one lemon, half a cinnamon stick, four cardamoms, and ginger juice, whichever you can get your hands on. With all these ingredients prepared, along with a glass of water, we begin cooking over low heat, continuing until we see that the preparation has absorbed the water. Then the eggplant will be preserved and shiny, and we'll have it ready to begin placing it in a glass jar, which, as always, we'll have previously sterilized. The next steps are the same as those indicated for the tomato preserve. And for the pantry, one more preserve; in this case, a sweet one.

Samfaina

We take the ingredients we like to prepare a chanfaina: onion, green and red pepper, eggplant, tomato, zucchini. Whichever you like. Once chosen, peel them, cut them, and place them in the pan with a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil in the order necessary for them to cook well. That is, with the vegetables we mentioned, the order would be: onion, pepper, eggplant, tomato (which we can grate), and zucchini.

Once well cooked, we put them in the jars we have prepared, leaving no space, as always, and at the end, we add the remaining oil from the pan, which you can put everything in the back of the jar. The final steps are the same as those indicated for the tomato preserves.

With the preserved chanfaina, you can have it as an accompaniment to any dish, fish, meat, or whatever you desire.

Peach with lavender

For this preserve, you need to measure the ingredients carefully. For one kilo of ripe peaches, you'll need 300 grams of sugar and the zest and juice of one lemon and one lemon. Let everything boil for a long time. When they're cooked through, remove the pot from the heat. Then, take the glass jar you've prepared and place lavender sprigs on the sides so that they're clearly visible when the jar is closed. Next, pour in the boiled ingredients, making sure they're tightly packed. We'll carefully arrange the lavender sprigs so they're straight and well placed on the sides of the glass jar. With the heat of the boiled ingredients, the lavender will infuse, adding its flavor to the preparation. The final steps are the same as always: a double boiler, then swirl it until it cools, and when it's cold, store it in the pantry.