Roasted Roma Tomato Salsa

With our garden bounty of Roma and cherry tomatoes, I made a lot of copycat Village Hot Sauce. I also wanted to try to make a roasted Roma salsa, for a new twist. With all of these tomatoes, I could play with tomatoes for a few weeks before I ran out! This is me playing again, with great results. This recipe has a richer flavor as well as being a little thicker!

I looked at a lot of recipes. Dozens. Everyone has their own style and I had to decide what my style would be. After spending hours roasting cherry tomatoes for freezing I chose to make my salsa from roasted tomatoes and peppers. I could only imagine the depth of flavors, having sampled the little roasted cherry tomatoes.

Lovely vine ripened garden Roma tomatoes

I started preparing my tomatoes, aided by some ideas from several blogs. I first cut the ends of the Romas and gently squeezed them in the sink to remove their inside goo. That seedy, gooey stuff. Romas don’t have a great deal of it but I made sure there was less.

Slice off ends and squeeze to remove inside seeds and juice

Next I blanched the tomatoes to remove their skins. I put them into boiling water a few at a time, then into cold water to shock the peels into splitting.

Once cooled, I cut the tomatoes in half and removed the skins. I wanted the tomatoes halved anyway, and it was easier to get a grip and remove the skins when halved.

Immediately move to an ice cold water bath

I placed all of the tomato halves cut side down on a sheet pan. I put the pan into the oven I’d preheated to 425°F and set the timer for 15 minutes.

Cut in half and lay cut side down on a baking sheet

Then I realized I wanted the sweet bell pepper roasted as well, and cut it up. I pulled the pan out and slid some tomatoes aside to make room. Roast!

Cut bell pepper into pieces, remove seeds and membranes. Lay cut side down on baking sheet

At 15 minutes they were barely roasting yet so I gave them another 10 minutes. At 25 minutes the tomatoes and pepper were cooking well and the juice around the edges was getting pretty dark. I decided they were good to come out. I didn’t want them cooked to mushiness. I was going to put them in the food processor anyway.

Then I cleaned and chopped the rest of the ingredients as the tomatoes and pepper cooled. I placed them in the food processor as they were ready.

Place tomatoes and pepper into the bowl of a food processor with onions, garlic, jalapenos, sugar and seasonings

I added the tomatoes and pepper after I removed the pepper skins and pulsed the processor a few times quickly, wanting it a little chunky.

I squeezed the lime juice from the lime halves right into the food processor, added the cilantro, pulsed twice quickly and my salsa was ready. It sure looked delicious!

Process in pulses until desired consistency

I dipped a spoon in to taste and was thrilled! It was probably the best salsa I’ve ever made! It was similar to my favorite Mexican Village recipe but with a more intense tomato flavor that was excellent on a tortilla chip. The thickness was also new to my salsa making efforts, and that was by choice. I could have added liquid to make it less dense but we enjoyed the difference.

We had chips and salsa for dinner with pork tacos and even my P.S. was impressed with the flavors of this roasted salsa. It may be just a touch more work to make, but definitely worth the effort. I made several more batches and put them in jars and canned them for winter treats.

Roasted Tomato Salsa

2 cups blanched, roasted Roma tomatoes
½ small yellow onion; diced
1 teaspoon finely diced jalapeno
¼ cup chopped cilantro
4 green onions; cut into 1” pieces
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic; minced
1 sweet bell pepper; roasted and skins removed (I used a red one)
Juice of one small lime (about ¼ cup)
1 teaspoon sugar