Salsa Ranchera - Tomato Salsa

A little smoky, somewhat spicy, incredibly fresh.

This salsa is also known as “salsa ranchera”, meaning ranch, which is meant to be home style. My grandmother always made her salsa in a Mexican mortar and pestle, made out of lava rock. I remember as a young girl touching the pestle and then touching my face - Ouch, did that burn. Her salsas were much higher on the Scoville Scale than mine. I use a processor or an immersion blender now in place of the molcajete, but the idea of leaving the salsa a little chunky is to mimic the texture the original method creates. This salsa will not be bright red. If it is, it was probably made using canned tomatoes. The color should be an earthy, reddish color with flecks of char and green cilantro.

As you get comfortable with this basic recipe, you can play with other variations of chiles, and levels of spice. For instance Serrano chiles are hotter than Jalapeños, and habaneros are even more hot. I add the chipotle chile because I love the smoky flavor, but you can avoid that if you don’t like it. The key ingredients are charred tomatoes, onion, garlic, chile and cilantro. If you don’t like cilantro, don’t add it, but don’t substitute parsley, just avoid it.

Use it on tacos and with chips and guacamole. I also use it in my albondigas, as the fresh sauce to liven them up. Enjoy!