Classic Salsa Mexicana Recipe
Make it or Buy it?
Should you make your own salsa? After all, it’s not hard to get a good commercial version — for about what it would cost to make your own — that would take no effort. Why bother?
Three reasons. First, are tomatoes are in season? If you have ripe fresh local tomatoes, then the resulting deliciousness of however you prepare them will significantly top store-bought any day.
Second, as good as store-bought can be, you can’t beat pure, fresh ingredients. Homemade, when it’s well made, has the edge. Plus when you make it yourself you know exactly what you are eating, there are no hidden ingredients or preservatives.
The third reason? Because you can. There’s something about taking fresh ingredients and combining them into something appealing and delicious that feeds not just my body but my soul. That’s what led me to make salsa today. Also, I had some cilantro lying around that I didn’t want to go bad.
I had never made salsa before, and decided on Salsa Mexicana, a chunky pico de gallo recipe from Jose Garces’s splendid cookbook “The Latin Road Home,” published by Lake Isle Press. In addition to the standard ingredients — tomato, onion, peppers, cilantro, lime — this recipe calls for tequila blanco (aka silver). I’m not a fan of tequila, silver or otherwise, but even…