Fall is near, with mornings feeling a bit chillier, and in my garden, hundreds of tomatoes and peppers asking to be harvested. This recipe is little more a basic guideline that can be edited at will to match what you have on hand. Quantities are entirely to your taste. The basic ingredients are:
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tomatoes ( sauce tomatoes are preferable, but any tomato will do)
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jalapeños or other fresh hot peppers
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garlic
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salt
Using a heavy skillet or griddle, roast the peppers and tomatoes on medium heat, turning occasionally until they are good and charred. This should take about 10 minutes or so for the tomatoes, and a few minutes less for the peppers.
About 5 minutes into the roasting time, put a few cloves of garlic in the skillet, papery skins and all. When all ingredients are soft, put the peppers, peeled garlic cloves, and salt into a blender and pulse several times, until the mixture is not quite smooth, but looks more saucy than just chopped. Big chunks of spicy peppers could be unpleasant to bite into.
You can add the tomatoes at this point and blend well, or you can pour the pepper mixture into a bowl, blend the tomatoes until smooth, and then stir in the pepper mixture a bit at a time, until the spiciness is to your liking.
I like to use this salsa on tacos, scrambled eggs, slathered on a burger, or just scooped up with chips. I often preserve this salsa in canning jars to have those wonderful summer flavors in midwinter. Buen provecho!
