Pico de Gallo

Everything cut to the same small dice by hand, because a processor bruises it into a wet purée in four seconds.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 500 g firm ripe tomatoes, deseeded
• 1 medium white onion
• 2 serrano chillies
• a large handful of coriander
• juice of 2 limes
• 1 teaspoon salt, at the end

Method

1. EVERYTHING IS CUT TO THE SAME SMALL DICE BY HAND, and a food processor cannot do it. This is not fussiness about technique: a processor blade does not cut tomato, it bruises and bursts it, and within four seconds there is a wet pink purée in the bowl with a few lumps of onion in it. The whole character of a pico de gallo is that it is dry enough to sit on top of something -- a mollete, a tostada, a piece of grilled meat -- in distinct pieces you can see. A knife, a board, and about five minutes: tomato, onion and chilli all cut to roughly half a centimetre so no one ingredient dominates a spoonful.
2. THE TOMATOES ARE DESEEDED AND THE SEEDS AND JELLY GO IN THE BIN. Halved, and the seedy centre scooped out with a thumb or a teaspoon. That jelly is where nearly all the water is, and left in it collects in the bottom of the bowl within ten minutes and everything above it goes limp. The firm outer wall is what gets diced.
3. IT IS SALTED AT THE VERY LAST MOMENT. Salt draws water out of cut tomato and onion immediately, and a bowl salted half an hour ahead will be sitting in liquid. The salt goes in as it goes to the table, stirred through once.
4. THE ONION IS WHITE AND IT IS RINSED. White onion is sharper and cleaner than red or brown here. Diced and then rinsed briefly in cold water and shaken dry, it loses the harsh sulphurous edge that otherwise sits on top of everything, without losing its bite.
5. THE CORIANDER IS CHOPPED COARSELY AND ADDED LAST. Finely chopped it goes black at the edges within twenty minutes and its flavour leaches into the liquid. Roughly chopped, stalks included, stirred in at the end, it stays green and identifiable.
6. The tomatoes halved and the SEEDS AND JELLY scooped out and discarded.
7. The firm flesh cut into an even 5 mm DICE by hand.
8. The white onion cut to the SAME dice, then RINSED briefly in cold water and shaken dry.
9. The chillies deseeded and cut much finer, so the heat spreads.
10. The coriander chopped COARSELY, stalks and all.
11. Tomato, onion and chilli combined in a bowl with the lime juice.
12. The coriander folded in LAST.
13. LEFT UNSALTED until the moment it goes to the table.
14. SALTED then, stirred once, and TASTED.
15. Served at once. It is best within the hour and is watery by the next day.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes