Katie's Unforgettable Salsa

I started making this recipe years ago, and it has remained a favorite in my family ever since. If I try to put a jarred salsa on the table, my kids mutiny against me and threaten to not clean their rooms until I make the good stuff.

Just kidding on the kids…but they really do love this salsa! And the beauty of it is -if you have a food processor, you can make this in about 5 minutes.There really is no excuse for that nasty stuff you see in the grocery store. It’s just not right. Repeat after me. ”It’s just not right”.

Here’s how I make it.

The Ingredients of love: Green pepper, onion, jalepeno, garlic, cilantro, large can of whole peeled tomatoes, tomato paste, italian seasoning, sugar, salt and pepper.

You will not need to finely chop anything in this recipe. Let the food processor do the work. You will need to roughly cut up your veggies though to throw them into the processor.

Cut one green pepper into fourths and remove the stem, seeds and ribs (the icky whitish parts).

Throw it into your food processor.

Cut your onion into fourths also. Lop off both ends, peel the outer layer off and chunk it into fourths.

Toss it in to join it’s friend the green pepper in your food processor. Peppers and onions are great companions.

Now cut off the end of your jalepeno and cut it into fourths.

The ribs and seeds of this little puppy are where the heat lies. You can remove them if you like the jalepeno flavor but want to keep it real mild. I use one whole jalepeno with the ribs and seeds in mine. My family likes a bit of hot but not misery. Throw it in the food processor with the pepper and onion.

Take your cilantro and give it a rinse. Cut off a good hunk of cilantro, about 1 cup. I love this stuff, so I like to use a lot. Throw it in, leaves and all. If you’re hung up on the stems, you can pull all the leaves off, but why? It processes up just fine. You’ll never know it’s there.

Take 3 cloves of garlic and give them a smash with your large knife, or a soup can works great too! You can easily remove the peel now and throw your garlic cloves into the processor.

Toss it in the pool with the rest of the kids! Now pulse your food processor several times until it looks like this.

I like my salsa fairly smooth, but if you like it chunky, just process it until it’s medium chunky. You will do a bit more processing later so stop sooner than you think you should.

Now you want to open your large can of whole peeled tomatoes. This recipe works great in summer also with fresh ripe tomatoes. Use 4-5 fresh tomatoes at this point if you like. Dump them in the processor.

Open your small can of tomato paste. Put 2 tablespoons in the processor.

At this point, you’ll probably have some tomato paste left in your little can. I used to put this in the refrigerator, and about 2 weeks later, throw it out as it had some green fuzzy stuff growing on it. Ewww!

Here’s a little trick to freeze your paste and it keeps wonderfully.

Spoon by the tablespoon or teaspoon or both onto a wax-line paper plate and pop into your freezer for about 2 hours. This is called “flash freezing”.

After 2 hours, remove from freezer and pop into a freezer baggy.

Return to your freezer and just take some out whenever you want to add a little zip to a soup, stew or broth.

Okay, back to the recipe.

Now you want to add 1 T salt, 1 T. Italian Spice, 1 t. sugar and 1 t. pepper to the mix.

Pulse your food processor several times until the tomatoes are crushed up and the salsa gets somewhat smooth. Take a tortilla chip and give it a taste.

If you think it needs more salt or pepper at this point, add some. Mine was absolutely perfect and Mr. Wonderful and I ate several more chips straight out of the processor before we poured it into a bowl.

Mmmmm…hours of snacking enjoyment. Doncha want some?