Salsa

Easy to make and deliciously different, this lively salsa can be served with tortillas as an accompaniment or appetizer for a Southwestern-style meal. See Big Quesadillas with Refried Beans, Spinach, and Avocado (page 145), in which this is used as a topping.

The fresh punch of tomatoes, cilantro, and lime makes this sauce a natural fit for Viva la México Balls (page 27), but try it as a dip with chips too. This sauce will keep for up to four days in the fridge.

Come into the Dinosaur any night after work and eat this salsa at the bar with freshly fried tortilla chips. Back home, make it with the best tomatoes you can get your hands on.

Our chef Eddy developed this recipe based on the salsa he grew up with in Mexico City. It’s a favorite among our customers, especially at the height of summer when the tomatoes and peppers come from our own mini-farm. I love to spoon it over fried eggs after a late night of drinking, but it’s also perfect for picnicking or just snacking. For a milder salsa, remove the seeds from the jalapeño before roasting it.

Salsa simply means “sauce” in Spanish. These three versions are delicious served with tortilla chips, or as condiments along-side grilled fish, chicken, or pork.

Salsa simply means “sauce” in Spanish. These three versions are delicious served with tortilla chips, or as condiments along-side grilled fish, chicken, or pork.

Salsa simply means “sauce” in Spanish. These three versions are delicious served with tortilla chips, or as condiments along-side grilled fish, chicken, or pork.

GOOD TO KNOW To impart more flavor and moistness, cook the salmon fillets with the skin intact. The skin will cook to a delightful crisp, but you can remove it before serving if desired.

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.

A simple uncooked sauce of fresh herbs brings aliveness to the table. Salsa verde (green sauce) is a versatile sauce of parsley and olive oil flavored with shallots, capers, and lemon zest. The basic recipe can be enhanced with additional ingredients to make it more pungent and complex. It will brighten and complement many dishes, especially grilled vegetables, meat, and fish.

This salsa is so easy to make and tastes so much better than anything you can buy in a jar! Use fresh ripe tomatoes in the summer and canned whole tomatoes the rest of the year.

This salsa is a fresh complement to grilled or baked fish or fish tacos.

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.

Salsa verde, the classic green sauce of Italy, is a sauce of olive oil and chopped parsley flavored with lemon zest, garlic, and capers. It adds lively freshness to almost any simple dish. Flat-leaved Italian parsley is preferable, but curly parsley is good, too. Fresh parsley—the fresher the better—is the majority herb, but almost any other fresh, tender herb can enhance a salsa verde: tarragon, chervil, and chives are good choices. Use a sharp knife when you chop parsley (and other herbs). A sharp knife slices cleanly through the leaves, preserving both flavor and color, while a dull knife mashes and bruises them. The zest is the thin yellow outer layer of the lemon’s skin; avoid grating any of the bitter white part (called the pith) beneath. The zest brightens the flavor of the sauce, so don’t be shy with it; you may need more than one lemon’s worth. Don’t hesitate to experiment. I make salsa verde more or less thick depending on what I am using it for. I tend to use less oil when it’s for roasted meats and grilled vegetables and more for fish.

In Mexico pico de gallo is used to describe a wide variety of regional salsas, which are always made with cubed fresh fruit and/ or vegetables. Pico de gallo is also known as salsa picada, which means minced or chopped sauce. The most common version is made with red tomatoes, onion, and green chiles and is sometimes called salsa mexicana or salsa bandera, because the colors in the salsa represent those of the Mexican flag. I like to make mine with yellow tomatoes when I am in the mood for a sweeter salsa. Feel free to use red tomatoes if you want to keep it traditional.

Mangoes sprinkled with a mixture of chile and salt and served on a stick are popular street-corner fare in Mexico. I love the combination of flavors so much that I used it to create this salsa, with the addition of avocado for extra richness. Mangoes come in several varieties, and any type will work as long as the fruit is ripe but firm enough that it won’t fall apart in the salsa.

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.

What’s better than one chile? Three! Mexican food owes much of its flair to the chile, which has been around since about 7500 B.C. Chiles add heat and depth to almost everything I make at home. (As an added bonus, some scientists believe the chile has miraculous disease-fighting powers, with the ability to promote weight loss and to prevent everything from heart disease to cancer.) Here you have the cascabel chile, which adds a slightly nutty flavor, the árbol chile, which brings heat, and my favorite, the sweet and smoky guajillo, to create a salsa that is in perfect harmony.

My aunt Martha swears that this smoky, sweet, tropical salsa takes her back to Yucatán no matter where she is when she makes it. It works especially well with Cilantro Tandoori Chicken (page 110), but it will enhance any grilled fish or meat. If the grill’s fired up, throw the pineapple right on it; a grill pan will do just fine if you’re cooking indoors.