roasted tomato salsa

So far, July has been just perfect. Dry, breezy, and bright. Of course it can’t last, but for now let’s all make some salsa and sit outside.

For a recent dinner with friends, I made a roasted tomato salsa and a light broccoli leek salad. The salad was much better right when I had just tossed in the dressing, and didn’t hold up quite as well as I’d hoped, but the salsa was divine. And I should know because I think I ate at least half of it.

I have always been partial to fresh salsa, which has a lot to do with my addiction to raw onions. For this recipe I had the best of both worlds — roasted tomatoes, poblano peppers, and garlic, combined with a large spring onion diced as finely as possible, lime juice, and fresh parsley and oregano. I used the food processor to combine the roasted ingredients, and then combined everything else. The texture of the onions gave the salsa a bit of body, and roasted tomatoes lent a rich red clay color. A few more steps than fresh salsa but still easy to make, this recipe makes a refined salsa that maintains its bright flavors.

Roasted Tomato Salsa

8 medium tomatoes, tops cut of and seeds and juice squeeed out
8 cloves garlic, very bottom cut off but left in skin
1 poblano pepper
1 jalepeno peppers
1 large spring onion and stem, finely diced
2 tablespoons lime juice (at least)
splash of rice wine or apple cider vinegar
fresh parsely and oregano, finely chopped
salt
pepper
ground cayenne to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brush a very thin layer of olive oil on the bottom of an oven proof casserole dish, and place the tomatoes cut side up. Do the same in another dish with the peppers. For the garlic cut a square of thick foil, make a small well in the bottom, pour in a teaspoon of olive oil, carefully place the garlic cut side down. Wrap up the foil being careful that the only openings are on the top (you don’t want you garlic juices to spill out in to the oven); then wrap with one one more square of foil. Place everything into the oven and keep a close eye; cooking time should be about 20 minutes. Pull the garlic first, as you do not want it to burn. Look for everything to take on some color and for the juices of the tomatoes and peppers to be bubbly.

Remove from oven, take vegetables out of the casseroles and set aside for a second to cool. Unwrap the garlic and when it is cool enough, squeeze it out of its papery skin. Rinse the stem and seeds from the peppers. Throw everything into a food processor giving everything 4 or 5 good pulses.

Place ingredients into a bowl with the onion, herbs, lime juice, vinegar, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Serve with a heap of tortilla chips either store bought, or fresh.