Roasted Tomato Salsa

What do you do when you have a table full of tomatoes from your garden??

You make salsa!  I love my Pico de Gallo recipe, but this time I wanted to try and give the salsa a more roasted flavor. so I simply took the same ingredients and tossed them in some olive oil, and roasted them in the oven until they were soft and a bit charred.  I then put them in a food processor with some lime juice and cilantro, and presto, salsa!  This recipe makes quite a bit of salsa, but it will keep for at least a week in the fridge, and it can be used for so many things.  It is great topping for fish or chicken, or stir in some black beans and corn for an easy side dish.  I like my salsa hot, but feel free to scale down on the chile peppers if you like a more mild salsa.


Roasted Tomato Salsa

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 large garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 medium red onion, quartered
• 6 hot peppers, stems removed (I used 3 jalapenos and 3 serranos, if you want a milder salsa, cut back on the hot peppers or slice the peppers in half and remove that seeds and inner ribs of the peppers)
• 6 lbs tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• Juice from two limes
• 1/4 cup cilantro
• salt

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place garlic cloves, onion, and hot peppers in a 9 x 13 glass baking dish and toss with olive oil.  Roast for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables start to soften.  You can use this time to chop and seed your tomatoes.  
• Remove the dish from oven and add the tomatoes, season with salt.  Return the dish to the pan and roast the tomatoes until they are soft and somewhat charred, about 20-25 minutes.  Remove the dish from the oven and allow to cool at least until the dish can be handled.  
• Transfer the contents of the dish to a food processor (if your food processor is small, you may have to do this in batches).  If your tomatoes are ripe, roasting them will generate a lot of juice.  I used a slotted spoon to transfer the tomatoes, because if I were to transfer all that juice the salsa would be way too runny.  
• Add the lime juice and cilantro to the food processor and pulse until you reach the desired consistency for the salsa.  The vegetables should be pretty soft, so it won't take long.  Taste and re-season with salt and/or lime juice if necessary.