Pico de Gallo
Pico de gallo is a mild, tomato-based salsa which can be found at nearly every Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant. Pico de gallo is a salsa of many names [1]—it is sometimes referred to as salsa fresca or salsa cruda. However, the sauce’s most evocative moniker is salsa bandera, the “flag sauce,” as the colors of the ingredients match the red, white, and green of the Mexican flag. Pico de gallo is served alongside tacos, fajitas, and quesadillas, or just with a basket of tortilla chips, and it’s quick and easy to make at home!
Ingredients
6 Roma tomatoes, diced
1 red onion, diced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 lime
1 jalapeño pepper, minced
1 tsp salt
As this salsa is tomato based, do your best to source fresh and high quality fruit. If you have access to heirloom or farmer’s market tomatoes, use them! If not, use Roma tomatoes, which have the best flesh to seed ratio for pico de gallo. If the tomatoes you’re using have a lot of liquid, do not include the seeds in the mixture.
Dice the tomatoes and red onion into ¼ inch pieces. It’s important that the size of the dice is small and uniform—the objective is to get several pieces of each ingredient in each bite. Remove the stems of the cilantro and chop the leaves. Remove the seeds from the jalapeño pepper, and finely mince the pepper.
Place the tomatoes, onion, cilantro, and jalapeño to a large mixing bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and the juice of the lime, and mix well, until the ingredients are uniformly distributed. You can serve the salsa immediately, but the flavor will improve if you let the pico de gallo rest before serving, either at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
Substitutions
White onions can be substituted for red onions in this recipe, though white onions will have a sharper flavor than their red cousins.
If you want a spicier salsa, include the jalapeño seeds, increase the number of jalapeños, or use a hotter pepper.
You can substitute tomatillos for the tomatoes, and diced cucumbers can also be added to the mix.
[1] “Pico de gallo” translates directly to “beak of a rooster.” There is no definitive explanation for how this name came to be, but there are several theories. One is that the diced ingredients resemble bird feed. Another is that the peppers used in it resemble a chicken’s beak. Yet another suggests that if you eat with your hands, you’d form a shape resembling a beak with your thumb and index finger. Your mileage may vary.
Recipe
Prep Time: 10 min Cook Time: 0 min Total Time: 10 min
Difficulty: 1/5
Heat Sources: None
Servings: 8
Ingredients
6 Roma tomatoes, diced
1 red onion, diced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 lime
1 jalapeño pepper, minced
1 tsp salt
Instructions
1. Dice the tomatoes and red onion, roughly chop the cilantro, and place the ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Deseed and finely mince the jalapeño pepper. Add the minced pepper to the bowl.
3. Add salt and the juice of 1 lime to the bowl, and mix well.
