Salsa, the Sauce, but Don’t Stop There (Published 2007) (2024)

SALSA needs redefining; literally, the word means sauce. But unlike traditional sauces, salsa has become a condiment, a dip, even a food in its own right.

Unlike béchamel, a traditional sauce, and ketchup, a traditional condiment, you might eat salsa as a side dish, with a spoon or a fork. (It’s also worth pointing out that unlike traditional sauces, salsas contain almost no fat.)

So one might define salsa more loosely as “vegetables or fruits chopped up with herbs and spices and usually chilies and onions, to be eaten as you like” and, inelegant as that might be, it works.

Here I’m exploring the subgroup of fruit salsas in which melons, stone fruits and citrus are chopped up with the other usual suspects, with results so sensational that you’re even more likely to eat them with a spoon.

In my simplified world there’s a basic formula for salsa and the changes all revolve around it. You need substance, a role in which tomatoes are the most familiar player; here I use papaya, peach (mixed with tomato — amazing), citrus or melon. This determines the basic character of the salsa.

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You need crunch, and it’s hard to do better than the combination of onion (red or white are best) and bell pepper (using more than one color is pretty, though from a flavor perspective it doesn’t matter much). You need spice; minced jalapeño or other chilies are ideal, though even a pinch of cayenne is fine.

You need an herb, and it’s here that you can play around as much as you like. Cilantro is the default, but basil and mint are often equally interesting and delicious, and parsley isn’t a bad fallback. (Chervil, if you can ever find it, is also lovely.)

Finally, acidity. Lime juice is classic, and with good reason; it has just the right balance of extremely mild acidity and fruity flavor. Even lemon juice is inferior in this case, though you can use it — or mild vinegar (or diluted vinegar) — in a pinch.

It’s beginning to sound almost as complicated as a classic sauce, but there is a difference: all of these salsas can be put together in a few minutes, without turning on the stove or doing much more than chopping and mixing.