Restaurant Style Salsa with Canned Tomatoes

What is Restaurant Style Salsa?

I am all about a good fresh tomato salsa, also called pico de gallo, salsa cruda, or salsa fresca, but other times, I want something smooth, easy to spoon into a bean burrito, scoop with a tortilla chip, or drizzle over eggs. I want a Restaurant Style Salsa.

You know the one. You go into your favorite taqueria or Mexican restaurant, and they bring you a basket of warm tortilla chips and a bowl of tangy, chip-scoopable salsa. Y'know? That one. It has all the usual suspects, tomatoes, jalapeños, onion, cilantro, and lime, blended up into a smooth salsa, perfectly paired with just about anything!

Ingredients in salsa

None of the ingredients have to be finely chopped or overly-prepped in any way. You can just toss your canned tomatoes straight into your food processor, rough chop and add the onions and the jalapeños, and add in the cilantro as is.

• Fire roasted tomatoes Why use regular canned tomatoes when you can use tomatoes that have been charred just a bit, giving them a delightful smoky edge? Why indeed. If you can't find them, you can use regular canned, diced tomatoes for a still deee-licious salsa.
• Jalapeños I like to use 2 jalapeños, with all the seeds and the inner membranes, but I was raised on spicy food. If you are sensitive to spice, you can scrape out the seeds and the white ribs (membranes) on the inside of your peppers. You also can use less jalapeños or none at all. No salsa judgement.
• Onion Traditional salsas use white onion, but feel free to use red onion if that's what you have.
• Cilantro Some people have a natural aversion to cilantro. Science Corner🔬: some people's noses can really sniff out the aldehyde compounds in cilantro, making the herb taste like a mouthful of Ivory Soap. (I'm a nerd.) If that sounds like you, you can substitute parsley for the cilantro. If you love cilantro, let your herb flag fly! Add 1-2 handfuls, or ½-1 cup.
• Sugar ½ teaspoon doesn't sound like much, but tomatoes can be very acidic, and this small amount of sugar is enough to counteract that bitter acidity without bringing any sweetness to your salsa
• Lime Yes, we just (barely) neutralized the acidity in the tomatoes, and now we are adding more acidity with lime. It's a different brightly acidic note that really makes your salsa sing! Cha cha cha.

How to make Restaurant Style Salsa

Try to keep up:

• Add all ingredients to the bowl of your food processor or blender. (I prefer a food processor, but if you don't have one, feel free to use your blender, but be careful! We're making a textured salsa, not gazpacho. Don't let your blender run wild!)

• Pulse until smooth.

• Transfer salsa to an airtight food storage container and let the flavors hang out together for at least one hour. Eat the salsa. Whew! I'm exhausted. How 'bout you?

What does this salsa go with?

Besides tortilla chips? A shorter list might be, what doesn't it go with, but here are a couple ideas:

• Crunchy ground beef tacos

• Chorizo and potato tacos

• Carne asada tacos. Okay, all the tacos.