Roasted Tomato Salsa

You don’t know how excited I am to be posting this… I have been trying to make salsa for years. Most of the time the flavor was so intolerable we’d throw out the entire batch. My cousins who are all college students make fun of me cause they say salsa is so easy that they can make it (coming from boys who don’t cook). And really salsa is easy! I guess I just haven’t had much luck…. until now!

[posted edited 08/15/09 with new photo]

It finally hit me that my favorite salsas are always the roasted varieties! Why wouldn’t I try my hand at roasting veggies for salsa?? So away I went. And the result was fabulous! We inhaled the entire batch in three days… and only because we were holding back. We’re on weight watchers right now actually (sorry guys, its likely you won’t see any baking here for several months) so we were limiting our chip intake. Otherwise, I’m sure this salsa would have been gone in one day! Give it a try!

One year ago: Peach Mango Sorbet (perfect for summer)!

Roasted Tomato Salsa

1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
1/2 large white onion
4-6 cloves roasted garlic*
2-3 large jalapenos, deseeded & deveined, cut in half lengthwise
freshly ground black pepper & kosher salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 – 1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped

Heat oven to 400°F . Gently toss the tomatoes, onions, garlic, jalapenos with the olive oil in a large bowl. Alternatively, use spray oil to gently coat the veggies (You just don’t want it to burn). Season with a little freshly ground black pepper. After they are nicely coated arrange in a single layer, tomatoes cut-side facing up, across a parchment or foil-lined baking sheet, roast in the oven for 40-50 minutes, (depending upon the size of your tomatoes). You’ll know they’re ready to come out when they start to get a nice color and the tomatoes start to collapse. Remove from the oven and cool.

Puree cooled tomatoes, onion, garlic, and jalapenos. Alternatively, puree half of the veggies and hand chop the remainder and combine. Season with salt and stir in the cilantro. Refrigerate.

* I use this method for roasting garlic. Even though you only use a few cloves for this recipe, roasted garlic is delicious in other dishes and considering how long it takes to roast, I go ahead and roast a whole head when making salsa.