chagall mosaic

29 August 2015

Welcome friends. My neighbor has been making goat cheese. To me, this sounds like an ambitious undertaking but she says that it is quite easy to make. I feel very fortunate because she gave some to me. It is very generous; I wouldn't even know where to find goat milk. It is also great to get a handmade item that I would never contemplate making.

I immediately decided that I should make salsa rosa to use with the gifted cheese and to share my salsa with my neighbor. Salsa Rosa is a sauce that combines bell peppers, tomatoes, and chili peppers. It is refreshing and it has a little heat to it. This recipe originally comes from Casual Cooking by Michael Chiarello. I've altered the quantities of ingredients to make less sauce. I like to roast the peppers and tomatoes on a sheet pan. Peeling the peppers is a messy task, but rubbing them with olive oil before they are roasted helps. I like to place a small stainer over a bowl to catch the juices and strain out the seeds while I am peeling the peppers. Make sure that the peppers have had time to cool before you handle them.

I like to use a combination of red and orange bell peppers, but you can use whatever pepper combination you like the best. I go easy on the serrano peppers because I do not like the sauce to have too much heat. I like to make an appetizer that combines this sauce with bread and goat cheese. I also like salsa rosa with goat cheese and farfalle. It is a great sauce to serve with gnocchi, which is a small italian potato dumpling.

As with most sauces, this takes some time to assemble. However, it seems to disappear very quickly.

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Salsa Rosa

30 min. prep | 50 min. roasting | 40 min. cooling | 30 min. simmering

Salsa Rosa

Ingredients

serves 6

  • 6 plum tomatoes
  • 4 red bell peppers
  • 2 orange bell peppers
  • 1 serrano chili
  • sea salt
  • fresh pepper
  • olive oil
  • 1 Tbl red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 2 cloves of garlic, diced
  • 2 Tbl olive oil
  • 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

Directions

preheat the oven to 375° F.

drizzle a little olive oil on a pepper and use your hands to coat the outside of the pepper with oil and place it on the baking sheet. Repeat to coat the other peppers and the chili, and place them on the baking sheet.

cut the plum tomatoes lengthwise and place them on the baking sheet, cut side up. Drizzle a little olive oil over them. Sprinkle the tops with a pinch of sea salt and a little fresh pepper.

place the sheet pan in the preheated oven and roast for 50 minutes. Remove the sheet pan from the oven and allow the peppers to cool for at least 40 minutes.

place the cooled tomatoes in a food processor fitted with a blade attachment. Place a mesh screen over a medium bowl. With your fingers pull the pepper into sections from the end opposite to the stem. Peel the skin off of each of the segments and use your fingers to scrape out any of the seeds lining the pepper. Place the peeled and seedless pepper segments into the processor. When you have finished peeling the peppers, add the juices that have collected in the bowl to the processor.

use a sharp knife to cut the top of the chili. Cut the chili in half, lengthwise and scrape the seeds and pepper from the outer skin. Add the chili and seeds to the processor.

add the vinegar and salt. Pulse this about 10 times and then let the processor run for about 20 seconds to create a smooth sauce.

heat the oil in a medium sauté pan and add the diced garlic. Sauté this for about 20 seconds and then pour the sauce into the pan. Stir in the thyme leaves and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.