Recipe: D.I.Y. Cooked Tomato Salsa

All salsa all month we said, and here’s our next batch. This is a very basic cooked salsa, with sweet sautéed onions and peppers simmered with tomatoes and vinegar. This salsa is always full of flavor, but not usually as spicy as those with raw peppers. It keeps well and freezes beautifully, so it’s a great way to use up summer garden bounty.

We seeded our jalapenos carefully, since we were cooking for a crowd that doesn’t like too much heat. But we found that the cooking process took out the rest of their residual spiciness and we actually wished we had left the seeds and membranes in.

D.I.Y. Cooked Tomato Salsa
about 4 cups

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 jalapenos, chopped
1 cubanelle pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped
4 seeded and chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

In a large pot, heat the oil and add the jalapenos, cubanelle, pepper garlic and onion. Sauté gently until everything is soft – about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the vinegar and simmer for about 10 minutes to allow it to boil down.

Add salt to taste and chill until ready to serve.