Pico de Gallo

To follow up Thursday’s post on how to make your own salsa, I figured a post on pico de gallo would be apropos. Pico is actually considered a relish rather than a salsa, and can be comprised of any number of combinations of Mexican vegetables and herbs, including tomatoes, onion, jicama, cilantro, garlic, jalapenos, cucumbers, radishes, bell peppers, parsley, and even oranges. Here in the Midwest, though, pico de gallo commonly seems to involve just tomatoes, onions, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, and salt.

The key to pico de gallo is its texture – all the ingredients except the jalapeno are chopped roughly rather than finely diced or pureed like salsa. The result is a chunky mixture that heaps up well on a tortilla chip or adds texture to other dishes. You can use pico de gallo in a number of ways, not just as a chunky dip for tortilla chips but mixed with avocado for great guacamole, as the top layer of baked nachos, as an addition to burrito filling, or in any Mexican recipe that calls for chopped tomatoes. Pico adds an extra layer of flavor, making it preferable to plain tomatoes.

I like my pico de gallo on the mild side, so while I use jalapeno, I remove the white membrane and seeds and use only the green part, diced very, very finely. If you like things on the hot side, include the membrane (I would still discard the seeds since unlike salsa, you won’t puree their texture away with a food processor).

I don’t really use ingredient quantities when making pico, although I’ve tried to provide you with an approximate gauge below. The trick is just to start with almost equal parts tomatoes, onion, and fresh cilantro. I go a little heavier on the tomatoes. I always add one jalapeno, then lime juice and salt to taste, and call it good.

One other thing: if you can’t get really flavorful tomatoes, defer making this until you can. The lack of flavor you’ll end up with is just too high a price to pay.

Pico de Gallo

5 medium or 3 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
1/2 to 1 whole sweet onion, any color, chopped
1 bunch fresh cilantro, stems removed, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and with membrane removed, diced very fine
Juice of 1/2 to 1 lime (to taste)
Salt to taste

Begin by chopping the tomatoes into a nice pile. Then chop the onion until you have a pile a little smaller than the pile of tomatoes. Do the same with the cilantro.

Squeeze in half a lime.

Dice the jalapeno and add that to the bowl, and sprinkle on some salt.

Toss everything together, taste, and add more lime juice and salt if needed.

Keeps only for a day or so in the refrigerator, so eat it up quickly!

For a printable copy of this recipe, click here.