Some folks think of salsa as a Latin dance, but most know salsa from the Spanish word for sauce as a condiment generally constructed from diced tomatoes, to which chiles and other seasonings are added. It s the other seasonings, which vary from cook to cook, manufacturer to manufacturer, that give salsas their flavor distinctions. As for spicy heat, salsas can range from mild to meltdown-intense, capable of removing rust from a 53 Buick bumper in a jiffy. Salsas can be cooked, as in the jarred, commercially prepared varieties found at grocery and specialty stores, or uncooked, most often recognized as salsa cruda, salsa fresca and pico de gallo. In addition to store shelves stuffed with salsa varieties, a variety of restaurants cuisine type seemingly is not a factor have found that salsas equal sales.
Salsa even crown numerous dessert dishes.
Salsas in every course At Scottsdale s Caf Terra Cotta, a branch office of the Tucson, Arizona, original that gained notoriety in the late 1980s, salsas star in every course, from beginning bites to finishing sweets. The salsas not only enhance flavors, but also enliven the presentations. For our type of contemporary Southwest cuisine, salsas fit perfectly, comments Caf Terra Cotta owner and proprietress Donna Nordin. Because I consider ourselves more contemporary than traditional Southwest or Mexican, we always try to come up with different ideas for the salsas, not just the normal tomato and chile. Nordin says that recently the chef of the Tucson restaurant was concocting a salsa based on a new fruit.