Our Favorite Salsa

Peel tomatoes (dip in boiling water for about 1 minute, then into ice water, then peel); cut out stem and chop. You need to have at least 6 quarts, and a bit more won’t hurt. I averaged 7-8 quarts of chopped tomatoes from 20 pounds of whole tomatoes.

I seed and de-vein the bell peppers and 3 of the jalapenos. For the 2 remaining jalapenos, I leave the seeds in. (This year I didn’t seed any of the jalapenos, just stemmed and chopped them up, and it’s a nice mild-to-medium heat.)

Chop all the veggies (except the tomatoes) in the food processor. Add tomatoes, onions, garlic and peppers to a large stock pot; stir in vinegar and salt. Cover and heat to boiling (this takes a while), then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. After simmer time is done, stir in tomato paste and cilantro. When I add the tomato paste, I put the paste into a medium bowl, add 2 or so cups of the hot liquid from the salsa and stir it up with a whisk, adding more liquid as needed until it’s about the consistency of ketchup, then stir it back into the salsa. It makes incorporating the tomato paste so much easier.

Can as usual in a water bath canner or a steam canner for 20 minutes for quarts or pints. For more info on canning procedures, the Ball Blue Book of Canning is a wonderful resource. You shouldn’t can without it.