Red Salsa, Green Salsa


It might be an attempt to make up for last year's tomato blight here in New England, but this year our farm share has been exploding with tomatoes! So, when we picked up our share to discover tomatoes AND tomatillos, it seemed like the perfect excuse to make red and green salsa (and, to be perfectly honest, we wanted to impress our friends by bringing homemade salsa to a party). This was actually easier than I expected, although admittedly, and we didn't even use the mandolin!

We made our salsas moderately spicy (because that is how we like it!) if you want to cut down on the spice, just use smaller chili peppers, or use less of them, I guess :)

Aren't the tomatillos adorable? They were almost too cute to eat. ALMOST.

Red Salsa
Adapted from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything (NOTE: we use the iPhone app for this, and it is now only $2! A very worthwhile investment)

Ingredients
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 jalapeño peppers
2 large ripe, fresh tomatoes (cored and chopped)
3 or 4 scallions, chopped
1/2 minced cilantro
2 TB lime juice
salt and pepper

Instructions
Mix!

Green Salsa (Salsa Verde)
Also from Bittman

Ingredients
2 cups chopped husked tomatillos
2-3 poblano chilis
3 scallions, chopped
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 cup minced cilantro
3 TB lime juice
salt and pepper

Instructions

  1. Roast the chilis over the open flame of your gas burner, or in the oven under the broiler on a foil lined cookie sheet. Roast or broil the peppers, turning as each side browns, until they have blackened and collapsed.
  2. Let the chilis cool, then peel off the skin. It helps if you do this while running the peppers under tape water.
  3. Remove the seeds from the chilis and chop them finely. Put all ingredients in the food processor and pulse until the ingredients are roughly chopped.