Aztec Salsa
Fresh and simple salsa made with just tomatoes, chiles, and salt
City/Region: Mexico | Aztec
Time Period: 16th Century
The 16th century Franciscan missionary Fray Bernardino de Sahagún wrote about all aspects of Aztec culture, including their food. He mentions many kinds of salsa ranging from mild to hot, and the combination of chiles and tomatoes shows up all over the place.
Aztecs ate salsa with things like tamales, turkey, venison, and seafood. They didn’t have a good source of fat for frying, so tortilla chips didn’t come around until after the Spanish brought over livestock like beef and pork.
While there isn’t an exact recipe for this, using Sahagún’s writings, we can recreate a kind of salsa that wouldn’t have been out of place in an Aztec market. Since the kinds of salsa the Aztecs ate were so varied, feel free to use the kinds of tomatoes and chiles that you like. If you don’t have a high tolerance for heat, I’d recommend not using the orange peppers that I bought because they were pretty (they were habañeros).
“He sells food, sauce, hot sauces; . . . mild red chile sauce, yellow chile sauce, hot chile sauce . . . sauce of smoked chile . . . sauce of large tomatoes, sauce of ordinary tomatoes . . .
They also ate many kinds of chile stews; one kind . . . was made of chile and tomatoes; another kind was made of yellow chile and tomatoes.”
Ingredients:
- Yellow chiles, I used 3 caribe/güero chiles and 2 habañeros*
- 1 Anaheim chile
- Tomatoes, I used 4 large heirloom tomatoes
- A large pinch salt
*I picked the habañeros completely by accident. Feel free to use them if you like very spicy salsa, but you can use any chiles you like for this.
Instructions:
- Heat a pan over high heat, then work in batches to give some char to the chiles and tomatoes. Keep an eye on them and turn them so that you get some nice blistering all over. Be careful with the tomatoes, as you don’t want the skin to come off.
- Place the charred chiles and tomatoes in a large pot and cover them with water. Bring the pot to a simmer and let them cook for 12 to 15 minutes. After they’ve cooked, take them out of the pot. Now it’s okay if the tomato skins come off. Whether or not you keep them in the salsa is up to you.
- Let the chiles and tomatoes cool, then remove the seeds and ribs from the chiles. Chop the chiles and tomatoes. The finer you chop them, the less work you’ll have to do grinding them up.
- If you have a new molcajete, check the notes below for instructions on how to season it before you use it. Place the chopped chiles and tomatoes into a molcajete along with the salt, then grind everything together until it’s as smooth as you want it. You can also do this step in a blender or food processor.
- For extra authenticity, serve the salsa forth with the tamales from the Tasting History Cookbook, turkey, venison, or seafood, but I won’t judge you if you reach for a bag of chips.
Notes
To season a new molcajete before you use it, put some dry rice and a little salt in the molcajete and grind it in so that the rice and salt fills in all the little holes. Rub some garlic or onion over it, then let it dry before using.