Salsa Fresca
Here is the recipe used at the Coyote Café. Along with chopped onions, fresh cilantro, salsa tomatillo, and red chile sauce, it’s always offered as a basic condiment with tacos, regardless of whatever special salsa is paired with a particular taco filling. Salsa fresca is used in Mexico like we use ketchup—to wake up plain foods. But salsa fresca is better than ketchup because it is made fresh—ripe tomatoes, a bit of onion for crunch, the heat of green chile, the tang of fresh lime juice, and the refreshing lift of aromatic cilantro.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 4 cups
Ingredients
12 small, ripe Roma tomatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 serrano chiles, seeded and minced
1/2 small red onion, cut into 1/8-inch dice
Leaves from 1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
Preparation
In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together and serve. This salsa is best used the day it’s made or the tomatoes become watery.
Tacos by Mark Miller with Benjamin Hargett and Jane Horn. Copyright © 2009 by Mark Miller with Benjamin Hargett and Jane Horn. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
Mark Miller is the acclaimed chef-founder of Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has started and owned thirteen different restaurants on three continents from 1979 to 2008. He is the author of ten books with nearly 1 million copies in print, including Tacos, The Great Chile Book, The Great Salsa Book, and Coyote Cafe. Mark currently works in International Culinary Consulting and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Benjamin Hargett is a travel-loving chef who has cooked in Europe, the Carribean, Mexico, and the United States, where he worked with Mark Miller at the Coyote Café for many years.
