This summer (and now fall almost officially winter) I am featuring some of my favorite garden produce recipes. For the entire list, see the Recipes page or click on the recipes label.
There is just one last garden recipe I have to share before winter completely sets in, if for no other reason than to document that as of the first week of December, I had an entire box of garden tomatoes still sitting on my counter begging to be cooked up into some delicious concoction. Seriously. December. In Minnesota. It just seems too fantastically weird to be true.
From the moment I found this recipe, I knew I had to try it. This has been the fall of roasted tomatoes and garlic - I just haven't been able to get enough of them - so a salsa that is oven roasted is absolutely right up my alley. I mean, really, it doesn't get any better than the simplicity of a roasted tomato. The flavors are so rich and clean, this recipe is definitely going to be a regular at our house.
Just a couple of things you might find helpful: I doubled the amount of garlic from the original recipe, and I'm so glad I did. Also, when transferring the roasted vegetables into the food processor, I held back a good portion of the peppers until the end so I could gauge the heat first (my husband doesn't exactly share my appreciation for a really hot salsa). In the end I probably only processed about half of the peppers into the salsa and still ended up with a decently hot salsa.
Roasted Red Salsa
20 Roma tomatoes
2-3 yellow onions
10-15 Serrano or jalapeno peppers
1-1.5 Garlic bulbs
Sea salt
Cilantro
Half (or quarter, if using larger vegetables) the tomatoes and onions and spread out evenly in a glass baking dish or a baking sheet (roasting time will increase with a deeper pan). Remove the caps from the peppers, half (optional: remove the seeds from some or all of the peppers, to taste) and add to the baking dish. Separate the cloves of garlic from the bulbs, cutting off just the very bottom of each clove (leave the papery skin on - it makes a nice little packet to keep the garlic from drying out during roasting) and add to the baking dish. Sprinkle with sea salt to taste and roast in a 375 oven until the onions are translucent and the peppers have a nice char (about 45 minutes in a deep pyrex baking dish). Let cool slightly and remove garlic skins (they should be nice and soft and squeeze right out). Transfer the vegetables to the food processor (use multiple batches, if necessary) and run until desired consistency is reached. Optional: add a little cilantro (fresh or dried) or more sea salt during processing, to taste.
Recipe adapted from One Particular KitchenLabels: garlic, onions, peppers, recipes, tomatoes
