Recipe: Frances Bissell's Perfect Salsa

FRANCES BISSELL'S PERFECT SALSA

Note from the Source: Once you've made your own salsa, you'll never buy a jar again. Here's my classic tomato version, but you can use this as a blueprint for creaing your own, bearing in mind that you need hot, sweet, sour and salt flavourings, plus your main ingredient.

500g ripe tomatoes
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
or 6 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped
1 red or green pepper, seeded and diced
1 or 2 green or red chillies to taste, seeded and sliced
salt
pepper
1 to 2 tsp light muscovado sugar
lime or lemon juice
2 to 3 tbsp chopped coriander

Remove the stalk end of the tomatoes and core out beneath it. Roughly chop the tomatoes in a food processor, or on a plate to catch all their juice. You can discard the seeds first, if you wish, but rub them through a sieve to retain the sharp juice surrounding the seeds, which you can add back to the salsa or use as a salad dressing.

Mix the chopped tomatoes with the onion, pepper and chillies. Season to taste with salt, pepper, sugar and lime or lemon juice. If the tomatoes are sharp, you may not need much of the latter.

Stir in the coriander and leave for 30 minutes or so if possible, to allow the flavours to mingle.