Too many tomatoes? Try this delicious Mexican Roasted Salsa!

I confess to trickery to get you to read this recipe.  The truth is no one can ever have too many fresh tomatoes. Just ask those who attend the Tomatina in the Plaza Del Pueblo in the small town of Buñol in eastern Spain or my husband.  

Of course, if you can't go to Spain in late August, all you need is my daughter's recipe for Mexican Salsa.  It is authentic (we lived in Mexico City for three years), nutritious, contains no saturated fat, is low in calories and frankly, downright delicious.  Hence, if you don't have cornchips handy, or a nice piece of fish, chicken or steak you can top with this, start this recipe after you get back from the market.

Ingredients:

3 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes
1 bunch fresh cilantro, leaves only (*Can be optional, see below)
2 sweet onions
2 large dried ancho chiles (also called pasilla chiles)
1 TB. Kosher salt (or more, but taste it first!)
8 cloves garlic (or 2 heaping tablespoons roasted, minced garlic)
6 to 8 fresh, juicy limes
1 or 2 tablespoons olive oil, extra virgin

Tools needed:

A broiler and broiler pan
A blender or food processor
A frying pan
Paper towels

Directions:

Raise your oven rack so that it is about 6 inches from the broiler element.  Preheat the broiler to the high setting.  Grease a broiler pan lightly with olive oil, crisco or cooking spray.  Wash and dry the tomatoes, limes and cilantro.  Pluck the leaves off the cilantro stems and set aside.  Now cut open the dried chiles and remove any visible veins and seeds, discarding both.  Cut out the very tops of the tomatoes to remove the green stem piece.  Peel and chop the onions into quarters or eighths and peel the garlic cloves. 

Place the tomatoes, garlic and onion pieces on the broiler pan and broil for ten to twelve minutes, turning over once, until the vegetables blacken slightly on both sides.  Heat a frying pan to medium, add the olive oil and the chile pieces and cook for a few minutes until the chiles have reconstituted a bit.  Remove from heat and set aside. 

* As people like my son really dislike the flavor of cilantro*, until you know your crowd there are options.  One dish with cilantro blended into the dish, and another without it.  If you do make only one bowl, however, at least put cilantro leaves on the side with a pair of sugar tongs for your guests to add to their salsa. 

Because this is a very juicy salsa it is best to blend in small batches using a few tomatoes, a few pieces of onion, a clove of garlic and a small piece of the chile.  Pulse in a blender until there are no chunks left.  Again, if you are making separate batches for the cilantro wars, make the batches with cilantro last so the flavor doesn't linger.

If your tomatoes are not very juicy, rather than add all the lime juice at the end, you can add a little to the blending mixture.  Once you have blended all the vegetables and chile pieces together, pour the mixture into a large bowl and add the salt.  Make sure you add the remaining juice - a lime at a time - before you add additional salt.  The limes really add pizazz, but stop once you reach the desired tartness you prefer. 

We love a really limey flavor, but judge your crowd.  Ancho chiles, by the way, are generally very mild with an earthy, smokey flavor once the seeds and veins are removed.  They are the chiles  (when fresh) used in chiles rellenos (stuffed chiles), but drying them seems to completely take out that 'zing'.

Normally I skip cornchips, but even I fell victim to this salsa last weekend.  My husband jealously guarded the pickle jar portions I had refrigerated and complained when my daughter wanted to bring some home.  Yeah, she generally spoils him, but I noticed she left with half a jar anyway. 

Oh, and guys?  Cooked tomatoes contain lutein in an easily disgestible form, which has been proven to help prevent prostate cancer.   (One out of nine men will develop it over a lifetime.) Wouldn't you prefer this delicious salsa than the high fructose corn syrup concoction that legally passes for Ketchup?