Salsa De Jitomate

A lot of food smells bring back memories. Tamales in winter time, bring memories of family and the holidays. Chicharrones bring back the memory of my dad in the back yard, cooking chicharrones in a big, heavy copper pot, called a cazo, on an open flame. And, Salsa, well… it brings back the memory of my mom in the kitchen making salsa, and EVERYBODY in the house coughing up a storm because the smell of the peppers tickled even the toughest throat. But it wasn’t that my mom was doing something wrong, no way! my mom was and is the best cook in the world (as most people would say about their own mom). In any house, in any part of the world, if someone is making salsa, someone’s throat ‘n nose is gonna be a’ticklin’.

Now, I’ve spent a lot of time in kitchens; my mom’s, my aunt’s, my friend’s mom’s… most of the time, sneaking tastes of whatever simple or intricate dish they were making. But for the last couple of years I’ve been sneaking less and paying more attention, instead. Having my own kitchen now, I have to be able to make stuff in it. As sure as we learn to crawl before we walk (most of us), we gotta start with the basics. The right way to heat up tortillas, cooking a pot of frijoles de la olla, and making a simple—yet—delicious salsa.

The salsa we’ll be making today is simple, and to the point. Salsa de jitomate, or tomato salsa (for the non-spanish speakers), consists of a few simple ingredients: tomatoes, garlic, peppers, and a couple pinches of salt. that’s it. Of course theres a ton of other things you could add to it, but… lets keep it simple today.

The first thing we gotta do is roast all the ingredients. All except the salt. So, I set my comales, or skillets, over a medium heat and lined them with some aluminum foil for easy cleanup. Since I plan on canning the salsa, I also set my jars and lids to boil; completely unnecessary if you plan on using it right away (it’ll keep for a week in the fridge). But, since I’m making a bigger batch, I’ll have some salsa readily available for months and months( or, at least a couple weeks).

Back to roasting. Toss the tomatoes, the peppers, and the garlic cloves on the skillets. I’m using 14 roma tomatoes, 7 cloves of garlic, and 7 “chiles de arbol”. You can use any peppers you’d like, of course. I love serranos and jalapeños, but I recently received a giant box full of amazing chiles de arbol from a friend’s garden. So that’s what we’re using today. They have a subtle heat to them that creeps up on you. And roasting them is only gonna add a great smokey flavor to them, and the salsa.

A note on peppers: Before you set them on your skillet, or pan, to roast, give each one a nice little slit with a knife, or poke them with a fork to prevent them from trapping heat and puffing up and even possibly popping. Also, as all peppers vary in intensity, be mindful of your tomato to peppers ratio. In this instance, We’re using 2 small roma tomatoes for every pepper. but, if we were using serranos, it might be 4 tomatoes to a pepper. And, you can also always add more peppers if your salsa seems too bland. So, take it easy. Better a little bland and have to add another pepper than too spicy, and be fucked. Of course, the “macho-macho men” will never admit to a salsa being too spicy (I’m one of those guys), but there certainly is salsa “brava” (wild, tough, angry, spirited), and sometimes, muy brava.

So you roast your ingredients

And you roast them

And you roast them

Until they’re ready!

The tomatoes are gonna split and the skin is gonna burn, that’s all good, we want that. We’re gonna peel the skins off, and roasting them evenly, all the way around, will greatly increase the ease of the task. So once everything is roasted all around, we start peelin’ those tomatoes. The skin should come right off without any fuss. If it’s sticking on some specific part of the tomato, just throw it back on the skillet with the stubborn side down to cook and release.

As you peel the skin from those tomatoes, start tossing them in the blender; along with the garlic cloves, and the peppers (after removing the stems). With all the ingredients in the blender, add a couple pinches of salt and give it a course chop. Taste for salt and spicyness. If needed, add another pinch of salt or another pepper. Blend to desired consistency; normally a course puree suits any need. If it was a smaller batch, I would have used a molcajete (pestle and mortar) to give it that authentic, hand-ground, feel. Maybe it just feels more authentic to the cook… I don’t know, but it certainly looks nice when you set the molcajete in the center of the table and let everyone help themselves to spooning the salsa on their tamales or tacos or… anything, really.

just pour from the blender to your container of choice, and we’re done! Voila, salsa de jitomate.

Since I’m canning this batch, there’s a few more things I have to do. If you recall, at the beginning, I set my jars and lids to boil. Besides warming the jars so they don’t shatter when we pour a hot liquid in them, boiling the jars kills any bacteria that might have been in there. It’d be a shame to lose a batch of delicious salsa to early spoilage because we didn’t take the precautions necessary for proper canning.
So, I pull the jars and lids out of the water. Fill the jars with salsa, leaving about a quarter inch of room from the top. Place the lids on, and screw them down finger tight. Place them back in the pot with water. Add more water to cover the jars with an inch to 2 inches of water. And bring it all to a full rolling boil for 10 minutes.

Pull the Jars out and set them on a towel to sit and cool down. BAMM!! we’re done. Salsa for days.

The separation you’re seeing is caused by the salsa boiling in the jar, completely normal. Once They’ve cooled for a couple of hours, you can unscrew the screw-cap and try the lids to make sure they’ve got a good vacuum seal. After verifying that, screw the screw-cap back on, give them a little shake to mix everything back up and store them in a cupboard. No refrigeration needed.

Honestly, this salsa was a staple of my childhood meals. There was always a bowl or a tupperware in the fridge with it. It’s good on anything; breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s simple and quick and delicious.

Thanks for reading, and happy salsa making.