I've been perfecting my salsa recipe for over a decade now and I've got a base salsa you can add virtually anything to if you want to spice it up or add some flare. The basics here are what you start with, but feel free to add your own twist. This salsa can also be made whole like pico de gallo, or blended in a food processor/blender for a more traditional restaurant or dipping salsa. There are some changes I've made like using Roma tomatoes instead of regular ones (because they're more sour and tangy), but you can swap out any of the ingredients.

The most important ingredient is vinegar. You don't need much, but the acidity helps congeal the flavors. Without this, it won't taste right (even pico). This recipe serves about 4 - 6 people so multiply it depending on how many people you're serving.

Equipment:

Decent cutting knife, preferably a chef's knife or santoku knife for cutting the big stuff.

Cutting board

Large Bowl for mixing

Spoon

Garlic press (optional)

Serving dish (optional)

Blender/Food Processor (optional)

Ingredients:

6 Roma tomatoes (diced)

1 red or yellow onion (diced)

1 bunch of cilantro (finely chopped)

6 cloves of fresh garlic (don't use powder)

2 whole limes (juiced)

2 - 4 tbsp salt

4 tbsp of black pepper

1/2 tbsp of cumin powder

2 -3 tbsp of chili powder (I prefer California chili powder myself)

1 tbsp of cooking oil (makes the flavors stick together)

1 - 2 tbsp of white vinegar (avoid apple cider vinegar)

2 - 4 jalapenos (depending on how spicy you like it)

Optional additions for different flavors:

1. 1 - 2 cans of Chipotle peppers in adobo (for chipotle salsa)

2. 1 fresh mango (diced) - great with fish or shrimp tacos

3. 2 - 4 fresh green chiles (if you do this, use 1 - 3 tomatoes, less is better for green salsa)

4. Pureed avocado (for guacamole salsa)

5. Pan roasted or smoked peppers and tomatoes (for roasted tomato salsa)

You can add just about any type of pepper to this recipe depending on how spicy/what flavor you want, or fresh fruit if you want a sweeter salsa. For a very spicy salsa, try some habanero. I recommend starting with half a habanero just to be safe. For fruits, mango, papaya, and passion fruit seem to work really well with it too.

Directions:

1. Dice the tomatoes and onion and combine in the bowl. This is your base everything else will be mixed into.

2. Add salt, pepper, juiced limes, garlic, oil and vinegar next. Congealing the flavors early with acid gets the tomatoes and onions working together before you add everything else.

3. Finely chop or blend the cilantro so that the bits are very small. Cilantro is optional, some people think it tastes like soap. Genetic?

4. Dice the jalapenos, and the chop them a little more finely before you add them. Jalapeno pieces that are too large throw off the flavor. Keep the seeds in if you want it spicier.

5. Now add the chili powder and cumin after all the fresh ingredients are in.

6. Mix everything really well and let the salsa sit for about 10 minutes to let the flavors work together.

7. At this point a taste test in order. If it doesn't taste quite right, these are some issues I've run into:

a. Not enough salt, add a little bit more to get the flavors to come out. Add to taste, everyone is different.

b. Not enough vinegar, add another tablespoon if you can't taste the flavors mixed together.

c. Not enough garlic. If it's salty enough but something is still missing, try adding a few more garlic cloves.

d. Not enough lime. Limes come in different shapes and sizes, some also aren't as potent as others. Try juicing more lime into the mixture, one lime half at a time.

e. Too much onion. Sometimes if you get a very large onion, it can over power the tomatoes. Add another tomato or two if you like it saucier.

8. At this point, you can serve the salsa fresh as whole pieces, or you can dump this mixture into a blender/food processor if you want it to be liquefied like salsa you buy in the store or get in restaurants.

a. If you want chunky salsa, keep about a 1/2 cup of the mixture out of the blender or food processor to add after everything is liquefied.