Kitchen Garden Journal

“Toasting” the ingredients either on a grill, hot dry skillet (comal) or under the broiler until the skin chars gives this salsa its special character. Raw, it’s great for dipping tortilla chips; cooked, it becomes the red sauce found in the red or green squeeze bottles at a California burrito bar, great for squirting on just about anything.

Ingredients:
2 lb tomatoes
1 lb smallish onions (extra surface area)
1 large head garlic
3-4 chilies
1 bunch cilantro
lime juice (1-2 limes)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 tsp salt

Method:
Toast the ingredients on a hot surface until the skins are blackened: tomatoes and chilies are left whole; onions are quartered; garlic is left unpeeled as individual cloves. After toasting, “sweat” the tomatoes and chilies in a covered bowl or container so the skins loosen. Leave until cool, then peel and discard the skins. Peel the onions and garlic and scrape off any excess char.

Squeeze as much liquid out of the peeled tomatoes as possible. Blend or puree tomatoes, onions, garlic and chilies together in a blender or food processor. Add lime juice, vinegar, sugar and salt. Taste and adjust seasonings so that it tastes good to you. Personally I think the secret to a delicious salsa is the added sugar and vinegar. It really heightens the sweet-sour flavor of the tomatoes. Remember, this is a condiment, after all.

When making a red salsa, it is important to use only red, orange or yellow colored chilies. If you use green chilies, they will turn your salsa an unappealing puce color if blended with red tomatoes. If all you have is green chilies, chop them by hand and add to the rest of the pureed ingredients. Same goes for the cilantro: always hand-chop it rather than blending it. It makes for a much nicer appearance.

At this point the raw salsa is done. If you wish to make cooked salsa, heat a few tablespoons of cooking oil in your tomato sauce pan and add the sauce. Simmer until reduced by about 1/3 and thickened. It becomes a completely different sauce when cooked, turning and orangey red and having the pronounced sweetness of cooked onions.

Keep it for winter:
You can make a huge batch of this and can it, as I’m doing today, raw or cooked. Sterilize your pint jars, bring the salsa to a slight simmer and hot-pack the jars. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. The high acid and sugar content of this salsa makes it pretty foolproof and easy to can.

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Ingredients: tomatoes, cucumbers, onions. Method: cut them into small pieces, add oil and vinegar, serve immediately.

All around the world, and especially the Mediterranean, there is a class of lettuce-less salads based on tomatoes, cucumbers and onions that varies only slightly from place to place.

These salads just scream summer to me, and I wait all year for the moment to arrive when these three vegetables simultaneously come into season. Nothing could be easier to prepare than these simple chopped salads, and nothing could be more refreshing on a hot summer night than panzanella, horiatiki, or Israeli salad served alongside grilled zucchini, fish or skewered meats. Follow those links to recipes from some of our favorite food blogs. (Our recipes for these salads can be found on The Vegetable Pages.)  

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This is an unusual recipe for pasta sauce but PLEASE, don't be dissuaded. It is a traditional recipe from northeastern Italy where I did my radicchio research. The combination of onion and anchovy is simply sublime, and this is the simplest dish I know that expresses this particular flavor. (The pissaladiere flatbread of southern France is essentially a pizza with this sauce on top. Onion tarts flavored with anchovy, olives and tomatoes are also a fixture of Provencal cooking.) Cipollini onions are the best ones to use for this recipe because they have such rich flavor when cooked.

• 1 lb Thick Spaghetti or Whole Wheat Spaghetti
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 medium cooking onions or 1 pound of cipollini onions, roughly chopped
• 2 Tbsp dry white wine
• 1 tin flat fillets of anchovies, drained and finely chopped
• 2 Tbsp Italian parsley, cut into fine ribbons

Heat the oil in a skillet and saute the onions over medium-low heat for about 10-20 minutes, until very soft and glistening but not browing. Add the white wine and stir until evaporated. (The acidity in the wine offsets the sweetness of the onions and the deep primordial saltiness of the anchovies). Add the anchovies and continue to cook over low heat until they disappear into the onions, about 5 minutes more.  Add the parsley and turn off the heat.  Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook the pasta al dente.  Drain and mix the cooked pasta with the onions before serving. Though not traditionally served with grated cheese, we think a little parmigiano never hurts. 

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• 1/2 lb. arugula
• 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1/2 sweet onion (Walla Walla or Tropea), sliced thin

Wash arugula, spin dry and place in salad bowl. Top with tomatoes and onion. Dress just before serving.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• Salt & pepper to taste
• ¼ cup good quality extra virgin olive oil

Mix together all ingredients except oil in a small bowl.  Whisk in olive oil until an emulsion forms.

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• 1 pint cherry tomatoes (or 2 slicing tomatoes)
• 1 sweet onion
• 1 clove garlic
• Hot chilies, to taste
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 Tbsp sugar, optional
• 1 Tbsp vinegar, optional

Chop everything to a fine dice and toss with the liquids. Allow to sit for 1/2 hour to meld the flavors. Eat with tortilla chips or quesadillas, enchiladas, burritos, etc.

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Disclaimer: This is a nerdy digression on the science of onions.

Walla Walla onions are sweet onions. You eat them raw.  Named for the town in Washington state, they are the North's answer to the Vidalia.  We love them. We can't get enough of them during the brief time they're in season. 

The odd part about sweet onions is that they actually contain less sugary compounds than their acrid cousins, which are used for storage and cooking purposes.  So, "sweet onion" is kind of a misnomer.  The difference lies in the relative content of those harsh, sulfurous compounds that create "hot" or strong onion flavors. Anyone who has eaten a sandwich made with the wrong kind of onion knows what I'm talking about.  Eating a cooking onion raw leaves you with foul breath and a queasy feeling, like you mistakenly swallowed some household cleaning product.  Those compounds are the meaning behind all those tears.

But these babies (and their red Italian cousins, Tropea onions) are totally free of this harsh stuff.  So, it's time to whip up some Greek salad, or throw some burgers on the grill and top them with a nice fat slice.  What you don't want to do is cook with them.  I mean, in a pinch, sure, but that would defeat the purpose.  As I mentioned before, sweet onions contain less sugars, so they won't caramelize quite as nicely, or have that deep onion sweetness found in a french onion soup.  There will be plenty of time for that later.  So for now, enjoy the summertime.  It's too hot to cook, anyway. 

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• Tomatoes, chopped
• Red onion, sliced
• Kalamata olives
• Cucumber, sliced
• Feta cheese, crumbled
• Lemon juice
• Red wine vinegar
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Oregano, finely chopped
• Salt & pepper

Just combine the ingredients and allow to meld for a half hour or so before serving.

This is the traditional Greek salad, horiatiki salata, without lettuce. We recently enjoyed this alongside some grilled lamb loin chops from a local farm. It’s also great with hummos or falafel in a pita. Perhaps some grilled eggplant, too? The important thing is to use ripe, flavorful tomatoes and mild sweet onion.

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• 1 cup water
• 3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• ½ lb. stale bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups tomatoes, chopped (beefsteak) or halved (cherry)
• 1 cup celery, thinly sliced
• 1 cup cucumber, thinly sliced
• 1 medium sweet red onion, thinly sliced
• ½ cup basil, chopped
• ¼ cup parsley, chopped
• salt & pepper

In a large bowl, mix the water with 2 Tbsp. of the vinegar. Toss the bread cubes in the vinegar water, then drain the bread in a colander, gently squeezing out any excess moisture. Combine tomatoes, celery, cucumber, onion, basil, parsley and bread and dress with oil and remaining vinegar. Season with salt and pepper and allow to rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before serving.

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