Homemade Salsa Recipe

October and the harvest is in. The tomatoes are done, the peppers are finished, the last zucchini given away to anyone who would take it. The basil has gone to seed and I've cut it back and covered the beds with compost for winter. There's something both sad and satisfying about the end of the garden season — closing a chapter you've been writing since April.

I spent a large part of this week making sauce and salsa from the last of the tomatoes, which always produces more than expected. Twenty-two jars of marinara, eleven of salsa roja. The pantry looks like I'm expecting a siege. In a way I always am — winter is long and a full pantry is the best preparation I know.

Third session of Beverly's series: sheet pan meals, the same ones I've been teaching for a year, slightly refined from the feedback of multiple groups. This group had two fathers who came together because, they said, they both wanted to be more useful at home. They were funny and engaged and the slightly competitive energy between them made the class more animated than usual. Both of their sheet pans came out perfectly. I told them so and one of them looked genuinely surprised, like he'd been expecting to fail and hadn't.

The channel keeps growing. 115,000 now. I'm not going to stop marking it — it still means something, it's just not the center anymore. The center is the teaching. The center is always the teaching.

After spending the better part of the week making sauce and salsa from the last of the garden’s tomatoes, this is the recipe I keep coming back to — the one I’ve refined over several seasons until it finally tastes like what I was always reaching for. There’s something grounding about standing at the stove with a pot of fresh salsa going, the smell of roasted tomatoes and chile filling the kitchen while the garden beds sit composted and waiting outside. If the pantry is the best preparation I know for winter, then a good homemade salsa is the heart of it.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 16 (about 2 cups)

Ingredients

2 pounds ripe Roma tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 medium white onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2 jalapeño peppers, stems removed (seeds in for more heat, removed for less)
1 dried chipotle chile or 1 teaspoon chipotle in adobo (optional, for depth)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, loosely packed
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Instructions

Char the vegetables. Place a dry cast-iron skillet or heavy pan over medium-high heat. Add the tomatoes, onion, jalapeños, and unpeeled garlic to the dry pan. Cook, turning occasionally, until charred in spots and softened — about 10–12 minutes for the tomatoes and onion, 8 minutes for the jalapeños and garlic. Remove each as it finishes.
Peel the garlic. Once the garlic is cool enough to handle, slip the cloves from their skins and discard the skins.
Blend. Add the charred tomatoes, onion, jalapeños, peeled garlic, cilantro, lime juice, salt, and cumin to a blender or food processor. Pulse 6–8 times until the salsa reaches your preferred texture — chunky or smooth, your call.
Taste and adjust. Taste the salsa and adjust salt and lime juice as needed. If you want smokier depth, stir in chipotle in adobo a little at a time.
Rest and serve. Transfer to a bowl or jars and let rest at least 15 minutes before serving so the flavors settle. Refrigerate for up to 1 week, or process in a water bath canner for shelf-stable jars.

Nutrition (per serving)

Homemade Salsa Recipe — The Pantry That Feels Like Preparation