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I love a good salsa recipe. Along its companion, the tortilla chip, salsa adds a casual quality to any party, making friends and family feel welcome in your home.
This recipe is a labor of love-- one for Saturday mornings or a free afternoon, when the home cook can carve out time to create something delicious for loved ones.
In this recipe, the tomatoes' skins and seeds are both removed. The internal juices, along with their seeds create a sauce that is too wet, and are removed prior to roasting. Coming out of the oven, the tomato skins peel away fairly easily after cooling off for a short time.
Alongside the tomatoes, we also roast peppers and onions coated in salt and a little oil. Garlic is roasted, too, but is protected with a sheet of aluminum to prevent burning.
The result is thrown in a blender with some brighter flavors-- cilantro, shallots, and lime-- which lightens the heavier meld of roasted vegetables with a crisp, upbeat pep.
See my Garden Notes section below for growing information and Storage Tips for directions on freezing salsa.
Grapefruit spoon
Do you have one? Every home gardener should. It's basically a spoon with serrated edges. I use them to remove pulp and seeds from a variety of vegetables. It also makes pulling skins off roasted tomatoes easier.
Garden Notes
Tomatoes: Transplants are started in early spring to be planted out in May. San Marzano are a great variety to start because they are fleshy, with less internal juices seen in other varieties.
In Missouri, summers are hot, and larger tomatoes go dormant (stay green) when temperatures exceed 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Once temperatures cool, however, tomatoes will redden, so be patient!
Peppers: These vegetables are pickier than tomatoes. They really suffer with compact soil and are heavy feeders, so be sure to plant them in fertile, loamy soil.
With no dig soils, the top layer of mulch or compost both feeds and loosens the soil, but this activity takes time, so be patient if your soil was originally compact to begin with. Read more about this easy way to fertilize your garden here.
Peppers also can be started from transplants. Start them early, such as in February, and up-plant them into larger containers as they grow.
Onions and shallots: Alliums are also heavy feeders, so again take special care to keep the soil well-mulched and fertilized for the best results.
Alliums can be grown from sets, i.e. planted in the late spring as bulblets, or grown from seed. Onion varieties are sensitive to daylight hours. In Northern latitudes, look for "long day" varieties; by contrast, choose "short day" varieties in the South.
Garlic: Garlic is planted in the fall, and is harvested in June or July, depending on the variety.
Cilantro: Cilantro reseeds itself every year in the garden. Harvest what plants you want for coriander, and allow the rest to reseed.
Storage Tips
Did you know you can freeze salsa? I know canning is not too hard, but the dishes that seem to pile up with that production are too much for me.
I love these molds because I can re-use them over and over. This week, I froze cucumbers, salsa, and bone broth using the same containers! It saves so much time and money for me.
To defrost, just stick each block in the microwave and use the defrost setting at about 1 lb. Mash up the contents, and the salsa is fresh and ready to serve!
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| Salsa, back to normal after freezing. |
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