Ají de tomate de árbol

A tart fruit sauce

Ají de tomate de árbol is an Ecuadorian hot sauce made from tamarillo, a fruit that is not a true tomato although it is commonly called tree tomato. The fruit is much more tart than ordinary tomato, and the page describes it as tangy and slightly bitter, though another source it cites calls it sweeter than a common tomato.

Because its flavour is so different, the sauce is not simply tomato salsa with a different name. The fruit gives it a fleshy, sharp base that the peppers and lime then sharpen further.

The tamarillo

The tamarillo resembles a roma tomato but is pointier and has a thicker skin. Skin can be yellowish-orange or dark red, and the flesh ranges from orange to dark red to nearly purple. It is very tart and the page advises eating it raw only when fully ripe.

Outside Ecuador the fruit is hard to find and is often imported from New Zealand. The page notes that frozen pulp works for juice but gives a weaker sauce, while frozen whole fruit gives a sauce close to fresh.

Method and the choice of cooking

The fruit and peppers are blended first. Cooking is optional: a short simmer with water softens the sauce and keeps it longer, while an uncooked blend tastes fresher but keeps for less time.

Lime juice, onion, cilantro and salt are added at the end so that their flavour stays bright.

Regional styles

In Quito, cooks commonly add cooked, peeled lupins, called chochos. In Cuenca the sauce is blended with a mild oil instead of water and left uncooked, which makes it smooth and creamy.

Both styles are named by the page as local variants of the same sauce.

Serving and storage

The page recommends the sauce with empanadas, yuca bread, plantain chips, tamales, humitas, potatoes, fish and meat. It notes that a cooked sauce keeps about a week and freezes well, and that the uncooked version should be eaten sooner.