I eat a lot of salsa. A LOT. I am rather notorious for this, in fact. My friend’s boyfriend once innocently asked if I had anything he could snack on — maybe some chips and salsa? My friend nearly fell on the floor laughing at the thought of me not having chips and salsa in the house. There is no risk of that. Ever.

So when my awesome world-traveling chef cousin came to town for a few days, she offered to teach me how to make roasted red salsa and tamales (more on that later). Can you imagine how much I hesitated? Not. At. All.

And people, this salsa. PEOPLE. With a lifetime of tasting, sampling, and gorging research on salsa, I have never in my life had salsa this good.

Note that this makes a lot — a big mixing bowl full. I’m too embarrassed to tell you how quickly it went here. 😀 Without further ado, I give you: The Best Salsa Ever:

16 full size tomatoes, or nearly a produce bag full of roma tomatoes (we used roma)

2-3 yellow onions

20-25 Serrano peppers (remove caps) Note: this many peppers makes it hot. Feel free to reduce # of peppers, or scrape the seeds out of them

8-10 cloves of garlic

1-2 Tbsp salt

1-2 bunches cilantro

Halve the tomatoes and onions and lay cut-side up on a cookie sheet along with the peppers and garlic Roast at 375 till the onions look nice and translucent (see bottom left of the next picture), tomatoes look soft, and peppers are getting a nice char on them

Let it all cool a bit, then run through the food processor with salt and cilantro (we had to do this in two batches) Stir it all together and eat with abandon. Trust me.

Update 6/24/09:

Got questions? Be sure to see the comments below from The Cousin — lots of great info from the salsa expert!