I recently interviewed Matt Pace from Tex Tubb’s Taco Palace and he shared with me his go-to salsa.

I was thrilled that this recipe included:

Minimal chopping
Ingredients from my garden and CSA
Chipotle peppers in adobe sauce

Have you ever had these? They are hot!
Just ask Manatee.
He may or may not have eaten one straight from the can.
He also may or may not have cried.
Needless to say, he does not recommend popping these into your mouth whole.
Sweet & Smoky Roasted Tomato Salsa
5 Roma tomatoes
1 large yellow onion
1 jalapeno pepper
3-5 cloves of garlic
2 chipotle peppers in adobe sauce
juice from 1 lime
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4-1/2 tsp sugar, optional
1/4 cup chopped cilantro, optional
*I had mini-me versions of all of the above, so I used 7 tomatoes, 2 onions, and 3 jalapeno peppers.
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cut tomatoes in half the short way.
  3. Cut the onion into quarters.
  4. Peel the garlic cloves.
  5. Chop and see the jalapeno peppers.
  6. In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes, onion, garlic cloves, and peppers with olive oil, salt and pepper.
  7. Spray a cookie sheet with oil. Spread vegetables on sheet. Place tomatoes cut side down.
  8. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until skins are starting to loosen from tomatoes.
  9. Remove and let cool. When the mixture is cool to the touch, throw it all into a food processor. Process until smooth.
  10. Add lime juice, salt, and pepper to taste. If the tomatoes weren’t very sweet, add a little sugar too.
And now the tale as told through pictures….

I don't know it yet but I am forgetting something.

 

Still don't realize it…

Tossed it all with oil, salt, and pepper

And then I realize that my pan is missing some color…

 

Oops.

 

Are these not the smallest jalapeno peppers you have ever seen? And yes, these beauties are from my garden.

 

That looks much better!

 

You can see the skin starting to come off the tomato. I could have cooked them longer but I was in a time crunch.

 

You can see I didn't have the patience to wait for it to cool. And for the record, it did still turn out.

 

Mmmm…chipotle peppers. I only added two and next time, I would add more. Such a wonderful smoky taste!

 

If you want it more chunky, I would just pulse it. It purees very quickly!

Recipe Review:
Sweet, smoky, tangy, rich, fresh: this salsa is packed with flavors. And despite myself, it was really easy! At first, I tried it with chips….
It was good, but Matt had raved about using it in a taco with steak and cotija cheese.
I had corn tortillas.
I had cotija cheese.
I did not have steak. But I had something else that some would argue was even better than steak.
I cooked it, crumbled it, and substituted it.
Fake Steak Tacos = AWESOME.  This salsa was made for tacos. It’s good with chips but it’s amazing when paired with the salty cheese and meatiness of….well in this case, the meatiness of a veggie burger. Maybe next time we’ll try this with steak.
Or maybe not.
These were pretty darn good.
Thanks Matt for the great recipe!

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