Sun-Dried Tomato and Roasted Garlic Salsa

Note: This salsa is meant to pair with my sweet eggplant Gouda quesadillas. A link to that recipe is in the blog post, and you can find it on Tasty Kitchen in my recipe box.

To roast the garlic and onion, preheat oven to 400 F. Remove the loose outer sheath from the head of garlic, then cut the top off so all the cloves are just barely exposed. Place head on a sheet of foil, rub cut cloves with a teaspoon or two of oil, then wrap tightly in foil and place on a rimmed baking sheet. Place the onion rounds on the same baking sheet and coat each side with a little oil. Roast in bottom third of oven for about 45 minutes, flipping the onion over halfway through, and watching to make sure it doesn’t burn. When garlic is done, the exposed tops of the cloves should be golden. Remove garlic from foil to cool, then squeeze flesh from the uncut end of the head to push the cloves out.

While the vegetables roast, make the oil. Heat the 3 tablespoons of oil (from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes) in a small saucepan over medium. Add minced garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook for a few minutes, stirring, until garlic turns golden brown. The garlic should sizzle as it cooks—if not, turn up the heat. Immediately remove from heat before garlic burns and pour through a fine, heat safe strainer into a glass bowl or cup. Refrigerate to cool quickly.

Coarsely chop the roasted red onion and sun-dried tomatoes. Combine both in a food processor with 8 cloves of the roasted garlic, the cooled oil, and ½ cup of the diced tomatoes (this will give the processor something to grab onto) and process for a couple minutes, until smooth. Add remaining diced tomatoes and basil leaves and pulse a few times, briefly, until it resembles a sauce with some coarse texture. Stir in lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use. Serve cold with quesadillas or as a dip.