Sweet & Spicy Barbecue Sauce

Late July. The summer is at its peak and the garden is producing — the culantro tall and fragrant, the ají dulce starting to fruit, small green peppers that will ripen to orange and red and that will go into the sofrito, my sofrito, the sofrito made from herbs that grew in my backyard in Hartford, Connecticut, which is not Bayamón but which is trying, which is always trying, and the trying is enough because the trying is me.

I harvested the first ají dulce this week. One pepper. Small, green, not yet ripe. I held it in my hand and smelled it and the smell was right — sweet, slightly floral, the unmistakable scent of ají dulce that you cannot find in any grocery store in Connecticut and that you can grow in your own backyard if you start early enough and believe hard enough. I put the pepper on the kitchen windowsill and I will wait for it to ripen and when it ripens I will put it in the sofrito and the sofrito will contain a piece of my garden which contains a piece of my island which contains a piece of my grandmother who planted the same pepper in the same soil eighty years ago on the other side of the ocean.

Sofía was accepted into the nursing program. She showed me the acceptance email on her phone, standing in the kitchen doorway, and her face was trying to be casual and failing entirely because Sofía's face, like all Delgado faces, cannot contain strong emotion without broadcasting it at high frequency. I screamed. I will not apologize for the scream. I screamed in my kitchen at 3 PM on a Tuesday because my youngest daughter was accepted into nursing school and the scream was appropriate and necessary. Eduardo came running from the living room. He said, What happened? I said, SOFíA IS GOING TO BE A NURSE. He said, We knew this. I said, KNOWING AND CONFIRMED ARE DIFFERENT THINGS, EDUARDO. Sofía laughed. She hugged me. I held her for a long time, my baby, twenty-one years old, going to be a nurse, going to feed people health the way I feed them food, and the feeding is the family business regardless of the form.

The day Sofía showed me that acceptance email, I went straight to the kitchen — because that is what I do, what we do, and the garden was full and my heart was full and the only answer to that kind of fullness is to make something. I did not yet have enough ají dulce ripened to make my sofrito, but I had sweet peppers and heat and the instinct to turn raw things into something layered and lasting. This Sweet & Spicy Barbecue Sauce became that day’s offering: a sauce that, like sofrito, starts with peppers, builds slowly, and ends up as something you want to put on everything — a small celebration in a jar, for a daughter who earned it.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 16 (about 2 cups)

Ingredients

1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup finely diced sweet peppers (such as ají dulce or mini sweet peppers)
1/4 cup finely diced white onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (adjust to taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon hot sauce (optional, for extra heat)

Instructions

Sauté the aromatics. Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the diced sweet peppers and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 6 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Build the sauce. Stir in the ketchup, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, molasses, and Worcestershire sauce. Mix until fully combined.
Season. Add the smoked paprika, cayenne, cumin, salt, black pepper, and hot sauce if using. Stir well.
Simmer. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens slightly and the flavors meld together.
Cool and store. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes. Use immediately or transfer to a jar and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Nutrition (per serving)

Sweet & Spicy Barbecue Sauce — Made from the Garden, Made from the Heart