Tomatillo

Cilantro’s pungent fragrance partners well with fruity tomatillos in a lively pesto. The mixture offsets the spiciness of the cumin and jalapeño in this delectable soup.

These quesadillas, filled with mango chutney and cheese, can be assembled ahead of time and wrapped in plastic until ready to grill.

There are never any leftovers of this flavorful pie at Mrs. Rowe’s Country Buffet. Because green tomatoes have such a short season, customers have many long months to look forward to this pie, with its robust spice and vinegar essences perfectly mingled with an underlying sweetness. The flavors unfold with every bite. Longtime regular customers know to get to the restaurant early enough to enjoy a slice. If the green tomato season slips by, try tomatillos instead. This pie also works as a side dish with pork chops or chicken.

Tomatillos are a member of the nightshade family, which includes New World tomatoes and potatoes and such Old World relatives as eggplants. Although those wide-ranging kin have become familiar around the globe, tomatillos remain something of a country cousin, not much appreciated or grown outside Mexico and its neighbors to the south in Central and South America and to the north in California and the American Southwest. Tomatillos are an everyday must in Mexican cooking and dining, however, especially for one of Mexico’s great table sauces, salsa verde. Here the sauce, usually used as a dip for tortilla chips, becomes the medium for simmering meatballs. Make this recipe in summer, when tomatillos are in season. Canned versions are available, but they should be reserved for thickening chile verde and the like, much as okra is used in southern cooking.

Brian mastered mole verde under the tutelage of Brenda Godinez, a Cakebread staffer who creates exquisite flower arrangements for the winery. Brenda taught Brian that a proper mole requires many steps: almost every ingredient needs to be fried or toasted first to deepen its flavor. The mole verde, or green mole, relies on fresh chiles, tomatillos, and cilantro for its emerald color. When well made, the mole is velvety smooth. This recipe features chicken, but we sometimes use duck legs or pork. Truly, the spotlight is on the sauce. Serve with rice and a salad. Note that this recipe makes twice as much mole (the sauce, not the chicken) as you need to serve six people. But why make mole in small amounts? It freezes well, giving you a running start on the next dinner.

Make the Pork Tenderloin with Sautéed Apples and Leeks on page 205, and then use the extra roasted tenderloin in one of these recipes (page 206)—one with Asian flavors, one with Mexican.

In Mexico, salsas are typically made with ingredients roasted on a clay comal, or griddle. A cast-iron skillet is a good substitute. When whole chile peppers, unpeeled garlic cloves, tomatoes, and tomatillos are dry-roasted, they brown as they cook and develop the toasty overtones that create deep flavors in the salsa. Another traditional tool is the molcajete y tejolote, a rough stone mortar and pestle used to mash and blend the salsa.

This bright-tasting sauce is a great accompaniment to grilled foods of all descriptions—steak, chicken, shrimp, or vegetables—and it is also wonderful as a dip for tortilla chips or as a sauce for tamales.

Tomatillo salsas vary greatly from region to region in Mexico. Some are boiled, some are fried, some are roasted, but all of them have the same distinct acidic taste that makes the tomatillo one of Mexico’s trademark ingredients. A batch of this salsa is made daily at my house; it’s always in my fridge. It’s my topping of choice for quesadillas.

Nuts and seeds have been making their way into Mexican sauces and salsas for centuries. The nutty sesame seeds in this salsa, which is served at a very popular small restaurant in Tijuana called Mi Rincón Cenaduria (My Restaurant Nook), give it body and depth. Use this on steak tacos or even with grilled chicken. Peanuts can be substituted for the sesame seeds.

A fresh salsa verde, or green sauce, made with tomatillos is a perfect condiment for almost any meal (I like it on grilled chicken tacos), and just as good as a dip for tortilla chips.

When you see how easy it is to make this salsa from scratch, you will never want to buy a jar again. And forget bagged chips! It takes almost no effort to make your own at home. In my version of this classic recipe, the cheese is seared (asado) rather than deep-fried, resulting in a lighter alternative that really brings out the sweet flavor of the panela cheese. If you don’t want to go out of your way to purchase the panela cheese, substitute a moist mozzarella.

Taquitos, also known as flautas where I grew up, are corn tortillas that are stuffed, rolled, and fried. Shredded chicken or beef is the traditional filling, but here I use mushrooms and pair them with a tart tomatillo salsa for a great vegetarian dish.

There are as many green sauces in the world as there are red ones, and this is one of my favorites. Fresh tomatillos are best for this dish, and those, like pepitas (pumpkin seeds) are increasingly easy to find. Though it’s probably at its best with Arroz a la Mexicana (page 517), you can serve this with almost any rice dish.

When dried—as you will usually find them—pasillas are often called chile negro, or black chile. They are thin, small, shriveled, and very dark. They are also earthy and not especially hot, so they yield a rich, densely flavored sauce traditionally used with lamb, beef, and chicken. If you want some heat, soak a dried chipotle or two with the pasillas. If you can find fresh tomatillos, use them in place of the tomatoes. Slip off the papery husks and add a little water to the sauce.

A raw salsa, with nice strong flavors. Best with tomatillos, but still good with not-too-hard green tomatoes. I like to mix a little just-ripe red tomato in as well.

I wanted to include a dessert where chocolate was the main ingredient because, well, because people love it. This recipe was previously published in Rosa’s New Mexican Table by Roberto Santibañez and is one of my proudest creations. The tomatillo sauce may seem unusual, but trust me, you will be pleasantly surprised, and the smokiness of the chipotles gives an incredible depth to this scrumptious dessert. Boca negra cake got its name because, once you dig in, your mouth will be covered in luxurious chocolate. Be sure to use high-quality chocolate because it will make all the difference in the world. Serve it as is or with a bit of lightly sweetened whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or Natilla (page 163).