Achiote paste
A Yucatecan recado rojo is a brick-red seasoning paste built on annatto seed, garlic and sour orange. This measured home version shows one route into a much wider family of market and household recados.
Traditional method
Salsa roja
Red tomato and chile salsa · Salsa de jitomate
The red tomato and chile sauce of Mexican tables, most often cooked or charred before grinding. It is a family of preparations, not one formula.
A family of red salsas
Salsa roja, the red salsa, is one of the two most common kinds of Mexican salsa, the other being salsa verde. In the sources read it is described as a blend of cooked tomatoes, chiles, onion, garlic and cilantro, served as a table sauce. Mexican cooks treat the name as a family label: a salsa roja can be raw, roasted or cooked, and the chile can be fresh or dried.
Wikipedia's account of Mexican salsas separates the cooked red salsa from the raw salsa cruda and from the green salsa verde, which is made from tomatillos rather than tomatoes. The same article notes that salsas were traditionally ground in a molcajete, a stone mortar, and that blenders are now common.
Sources for this section
What charring and cooking change
Charring is the step that most changes the sauce. Saveur's tomato and chile version describes charred tomatoes giving the red salsa a hint of sweetness and smoke, which is the difference between a bright raw salsa and a deeper table sauce. The sources read do not compare charred and simmered tomatoes beyond this, so the page does not claim a difference between them.
Fresh serrano or jalapeño chiles are a common source of heat in these sauces. Kvalifood's salsa roja uses either fresh chiles or dried chile de árbol for heat, so the chile is a choice of the cook rather than a fixed ingredient.
Sources for this section
Where the other ingredients come from
The sources read do not date the tomato and chile in this sauce. Garlic, lime and cilantro are the ingredients that Mexico News Daily says were brought by the Spanish and introduced in the 16th century. The same article ties a pre-Hispanic tomato, pumpkin-seed and chile sauce to a different preparation, mole, and does not treat it as the origin of salsa roja.
Because no source in this set dates the tomato-chile salsa itself, the page does not state when it first appeared or when the cooked version became standard.
Sources for this section
Open questions
The regional versions of salsa roja, their local names and the dates of their spread are not established in the sources read. A food-history source on Mexican salsas would be needed before a regional origin could be stated. Recipe sources used here are published cooking sites, and their quantities are not standardised.
Sources for this section
History
Salsa roja is a family of Mexican tomato-and-chile sauces. Its origin is not dated in the sources read.
Ingredients
TomatoRipe red tomatoes, charred or cooked before grinding.
Amount not stated
No quantity is fixed across the sources read.Serrano or jalapeño chileFresh chiles, stemmed; the number is set by the heat wanted.
Amount not stated
Chile de árbol (optional)Dried chiles, toasted, for heat.
Amount not stated
An alternative to fresh chiles.OnionChopped.
Amount not stated
GarlicPeeled, roasted or raw.
Amount not stated
Cilantro (optional)Chopped.
Amount not stated
To taste.
Method
- Char the tomatoes, chiles, onion and garlic on a comal or under a grill until blistered and softened, or cook them in water until soft.
- Peel the tomatoes and chiles if the skins are loose, and cut away stems.
- Grind or blend the cooked vegetables with a little of their liquid, traditionally in a molcajete, now usually in a blender.
- Add cilantro and salt to taste. Serve as a table sauce.
Places
Mexico
Traditional use · Country evidenceSalsa roja is named as one of the two most common Mexican salsa types. The source does not place its origin in a region.
Related
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Sources
WikipediaHistory · Types
Salsa (food)Salsa roja is one of the two most common Mexican salsa types
Usual ingredients of cooked tomatoes, chiles, onion, garlic and cilantro
Traditional grinding in a molcajete and common use of blenders
Cited in: A family of red salsas; Open questions
SaveurMethod
Tomato and Chile Salsa (Salsa Roja)Charring tomatoes gives a hint of sweetness and smoke
Cited in: What charring and cooking change
KvalifoodIngredients
Salsa RojaHeat may come from fresh jalapeño or serrano or dried chile de árbol
Cited in: What charring and cooking change
Mexico News DailyHistory
Why do Mexicans love salsa?Garlic, lime and cilantro were introduced after the Spanish conquest, in the 16th century
The pre-Hispanic tomato, pumpkin-seed and chile sauce it mentions is mulli, the ancestor of mole
Cited in: Where the other ingredients come from