Home-Roasted Salsa: Preserving the Remnants of Summer

It seems everyone has their own version of salsa. It's one of those recipes that, once made often and long enough, takes on the sacred status of a family heirloom.

I've made this one for a while now...developed in my mom's kitchen a few years ago simply by standing with the pantry door open, pondering my personal favorite qualities of a salsa.

Roasted. Medium spicy. Fresh. And different.

Home-Roasted Salsa
1/2 onion, layers separated (add more if you wish...I have to minimize the onion due to Ryan's dislike of it)
3 cloves garlic, sliced
15 medium smallish tomatoes (or whatever equivalent you care to use--these came from my garden)
3 jalapeños, seeded
1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
Cilantro, 2 handfuls
Cumin, enough to fit in the small part of your hand when cupped
Salt, 2 pinches

Sauté the onion and garlic until soft in a frying pan heated with a little olive oil. Remove into blender. Halve the tomatoes and blacken slightly in the frying pan with a little more olive oil.

(The way I started out doing this was on my mother's gas stovetop. If you have one, skewer the tomatoes without halving them and roast over the flame. Carefully.)

Remove into blender. Add the remaining ingredients. Blend, pulsing until it reaches the desired consistency. Taste and add adobo sauce if you want it spicier. Remember...it may get spicier as it sits in the fridge.

Now I made this batch with my new Ninja blender. Be careful...as it turned my salsa into tomato juice rather more rapidly than I expected.