Remedial Salsa

Summer. It’s finally here— making salsa and chips my official inside-and-outside weekend appetizer or mid-afternoon snack.

If you, too, are a fan of salsa but wish the jarred kind tasted less, well, jarred, do what I do— which is never to use it without taking ten minutes to give it a taste that’s bold and fresh and a texture that’s way better than so-called fresh salsas sold in plastic containers in the refrigerator case of your market. 

Ten minutes, I swear. That’s all it takes,  minutes… and a few common ingredients: mango, some cherry tomatoes, red onion, tomatillos, lime and— optional, but trust me, on these—chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, and fresh cilantro, tender leaves and stems.

Mangos are wonderful and plentiful at this time of year.  The other ingredients are available all the time. If you don’t feel like going out and you’re missing one of the fresh ingredients, use what you have. And your salsa will be vastly improved. But use all of them, and you’ll transform a blah red dip into a pretty spectacular, zingy South-of-the-Border (just don’t get me started on that one) salsa you’ll be proud to call pretty much your own.  

Here’s how to do it:  

Mango: Know how to cut a mango? It’s easy. Hold on its side with the with the seed upright and perpendicular to the board.  Slice off the two “cheeks” on either side of the seed and lay skin side town. With the point of a sharp knife, cut the flesh diagonally down to the skin one way, then the other— creating a crisscross pattern of 1/4″ diamonds. Pick up one half, fold the corners down, making it concave, not convex.  And use a spoon or a knife to scrape the diced flesh into a medium-sized bowl.  

As for the pit that’s left and the flesh around it- first strip off the peel with your fingers. If no one’s looking and you’re near a sink, you can  scrape off the sweet flesh with your teeth. Or you can scrape remaining flesh off the seed with a knife, chop it, and toss it into the bowl. 

Cherry tomatoes: These add brightness and texture. And while any ripe tomatoes will do, I find that larger tomatoes require not just chopping, but also salting to extract their liquid, and draining to   prevent that liquid from making the salsa too wet. For taste and texture, I prefer cherry tomatoes – the ones sold on the vine in clear plastic clamshell containers. For this recipe, I use about one vine of tomatoes—around ten—cutting them into small but uneven dice.  

I’m sure I’ve written this before: please don’t substitute grape tomatoes for cherries. They may look similar, but they’re not. In fact, I imagine some food scientists of yore saying, “Let’s create something like a cherry tomato, but oval—and with only half the juice and flavor.” Why they’re even sold, I don’t know. 

Red onion: This adds a mild crunch and a nice deep red color. But in a pinch, a Vidalia onion will do. Cut half of a medium sized onion into a smallish dice. (Everything should be approximately the same size.) The acid of the tomato, lime and mango will mellow the onion almost immediately, infusing the salsa with sweetness and zip, but no strong onion taste or burn.

Tomatillos: You know what they are, right? The small green tomato-like fruits that grow in their own papery wrapper? I usually slice two in half, and then—flat size down— cut them to match the other ingredients. Tomatillos come in different sizes, so you decide how much to use. 

With these ingredients chopped, use a chef’s knife and your hand to transfer them to a medium-sized bowl. Gently mix with a wooden spoon. Then squeeze on some fresh lime juice to taste and mix little chipotle pepper in adobo sauce for a touch of heat and smoke. If you like cilantro, you can chop a few sprigs–leaves and tiny stems– but not finely. You want the cilantro to be recognizable as such. If it’s too finely chopped, it will blend with the tomato. And mixing red and green— in kindergarten you learned what happens.  

Now you can do that jarred salsa a favor by adding it, a tablespoon or two at a time, to your fresh salsa mix. Do it slowly and thoughtfully. You don’t want to obscure the bright yellow orange of the mango, the reds of the onion and chipotle, and the flecks of the green tomatillo and cilantro. Look, taste, and you’ll know when enough is enough. Put up to a half jar—no more. Taste, and if needed, add more salt and lime juice. Put it out with chips, and hear your family and friends tell you it’s the best salsa they’ve ever had. 

Remedial Salsa 

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 jar store bought salsa
• 1 mango
• 10 or so cherry tomatoes on the vine
• 1/2 medium red onion
• 2 tomatillos
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• 1/2 teaspoon chipotle pepper in adobo sauce* (opt.)
• 2 Tbsp roughly cilantro and tender stems, roughly chopped

Directions: 

• On a large cutting board, chop mango, cherry tomatoes, red onion and tomatillo into about the same-size small dice. 
• Place all chopped ingredients into a medium-sized non-reactive bowl and stir lightly. 
• Add lime juice and chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. (Find the can in the Mexican or global section of the supermarket.) 
• Roughly chop cilantro and stems. Add to the mixture. 
• Slowly add jarred salsa – a couple of tablespoons at a time, stopping when  you like the way your remediated salsa looks. 

*Chipotle pepper comes in a small colorful can – the deep burnished pepper in a smoky, spicy, ever-so-slightly sweet sauce. Once I’ve opened a can, I spoon the peppers and sauce into a same-sized glass jar and store it in the fridge, where it keeps for a few months. Once you have it, you’ll find plenty of uses for it. I’ve never had a jar go bad but replace the ones I have several times a year.