Roasted tomato salsa

I went over to a friend's house for the presidential debates on Thursday. She made an incredible Mexican spread of pork cooked in banana leaves, tomatillo salsa, rajas, black beans, guacamole, and sauteed purslane. Purslane is a wild green, often thought of as a pesky weed, which can be bought at Alex Paffenroth's stand for $1.00 a bunch.

She asked me to bring a salsa, so I made a very simple roasted tomato salsa. When you need a salsa, don't pick up the Pace -- there's no reason to fool around with those strangely viscous boiled jar salsas. Salsa is very easy and quick. It's a good way to use the last tomatoes of the season before the frost comes in (*sniff*sniff*). Though I will say that if you MUST get a jarred salsa, the Whole Foods brand roasted tomato salsa is excellent, as is Rick Bayless's Frontera brand. I like to cook that up with some tofu for a San Francisco style tofu scramble in the morning. It's delicious, trust me.

Roasted tomato salsa

Tomatoes, three large or 10 plum -- just choose the tastiest, ripest looking ones
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 or 2 cloves garlic
chopped cilantro to taste
jalapenos -- 2 for mild, 3 or 4 for medium, 5+ for picante!
(alternatively, use habanero peppers for that searing heat)
2 limes
Salt
Splash of red wine or cider vinegar

Put a cross hatch in each of the tomato butts. Drizzle a little olive oil over them and the jalapenos in a roomy baking dish. In the hottest temperature your oven can dish out, roast roast roast until the skins turn black. Don't be afraid of the smoke, just keep the oven door closed and open all the windows. Flip them once in a while.

In a large bowl, mix together the onion, cilantro, and maybe a minced fresh jalapeno for a little extra kick. Add the roasted tomatoes and stem-free jalapenos, skins and all. Using a hand blender, crush gently. If you have a molcajete (mortar and pestle) go ahead and use it, crushing the garlic in the molcajete and then adding the other ingredients. Don't go overboard, it's not soup. Add juice of 1 lime and about a teaspoon of salt to start. Taste. Add splash of vinegar. Taste. Tastes pretty good, right? Add lime and salt and vinegar to taste, slowly, but do not go overboard with either one. Makes two spaghetti jar-fuls. Eat with eggs, with quesadillas, black beans, bring it to a party. Yum.

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They say salsa is more popular than ketchup these days. But which of those disgusting tomato sauce and rehydrated onion stews is getting the most market share? I used the like the Herdez salsa that came in a can but the last time I bought one, it really tasted like the can. When I was in school in Berkeley, I used to go to the Cancun taqueria because they had the most mind bogglingly good salsa bar -- as much as you wanted to eat for free, with purchase of your mole and nopales burrito. They had strawberry salsa, avocado salsa, pineapple salsa, salsa borracha (drunken salsa), tomatillo salsa...yum.