For me, there is nothing more mouth watering than a quesadilla with a delicious roasted tomato salsa. I crave quesadillas every night for as long as I can remember. I often give up to this craving at night and make this salsa or the Roasted Salsa Verde to go with it. This roasted tomato salsa is sweet, tangy and a little spicy. Remember that you can adjust the spiciness of your salsa by removing the seeds and the pith in the chiles. The ratio of 2 tomatoes for 1 serrano with seeds and all, usually produces a moderately spicy salsa. So, go ahead and adjust it to however you like. Don’t skip the chiles though, besides spiciness, they add robust flavor to your salsa.
All the ingredients in this salsa are dry roasted in the broiler and then process with your prefer method depending on how chunky you want it.
If you want it chunky, simply pulse a few times in a food processor. If you want it smooth, process the salsa in a blender and if you want it extra special smash it in a molcajete!
Here are is a photo of the ingredients getting ready to go in the broiler.
Tips
- Remove the garlic from the broiler half way though the cooking process. Otherwise it will burn.
- Turn the ingredients over halfway through to get some charring on both sides.
- Do not use parchment paper. It can caught on fire.
How to make this salsa in the molcajete
You cannot throw everything in the molcajete and expect it to come out good. Believe it or not, there is an art to molcajete salsas.
Also molcajete salsas are better than hand chopped or food processor salsas because when you pound as opposed to finely chop aromatic ingredients more aromatic compounds get released, improving the flavor of your salsa. So, it’s not that is better because is the “traditional” way to do it, but because of the pounding action over the ingredients.
To make a good salsa in the molcajete, the ingredients have to be smashed/pounded in the right order. First, smash the roasted garlic until a uniform paste forms in the molcajete. Next, add the onion and smash it really well. A few chunks of the onion may remain in the molcajete and it’s ok. Add the cilantro (optional) then add some salt and proceeded to smashing the peppers. Take the time to smash each ingredient thoroughly before adding the next. Last, add the tomatoes and smash everything together. Taste and add more salt if you’d like.
Recipe
Yield: 2 cups
Ingredients
6 ripe tomatoes
1/4 white onion
1 garlic clove
3 serrano or jalapeños
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup cilantro (optional)
Procedure
- Place one of your oven racks at the very top so it’s close to the broiler. Turn on your broiler and set it on high.
- Cut your tomatoes in half, take the stems off the chiles (remove seeds and pith if you don’t want it spicy) and roughly cut the onion in smaller pieces.
- Place the tomatoes, chiles, onion and the garlic with the skin (to protect it from burning) on a sheet pan. Place the sheet pan right below the broiler. This will dry roast the ingredients efficiently. You don’t need any oil.
- Let them char and turn them over halfway through to cook evenly. Do 7-8 minutes per side. Take them out when soft and mushy. This means that they’ve been cooked thoroughly.
- Process until smooth in your bender or pulse for a chunky texture.
