If you can grill the tomatoes for this salsa—especially over wood—so much the better. But you can broil or even pan-grill them, and the salsa will still be good, as long as you make sure they blacken a bit. This makes a wonderful all-purpose condiment, and a great salsa for burritos and tacos; it’s also fabulous used in an omelet or scrambled eggs.

　　

Ingredients

makes about 2 cups

　　12 plum tomatoes, cored

　　1 large white onion, chopped

　　2 garlic cloves, minced

　　1 tablespoon pure chile powder, like ancho or New Mexico, or to taste

　　Salt to taste

　　1 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

　　

Step 1

Grill, broil, or pan-grill the tomatoes, as close to the heat source as you can get them, until blistered and a little blackened, 5 to 10 minutes.

　　

Step 2

Put them in a blender, skins and all, with the onion, garlic, chile powder, and a big pinch of salt. Whiz until chunky, then stir in the cilantro by hand. This is best used right away but will retain decent flavor, covered and refrigerated, for a day or two.

　　The Best Recipes in the World by Mark Bittman. © 2005 by Mark Bittman. Published by Broadway Books. All Rights Reserved.MARK BITTMAN is the author of the blockbuster The Best Recipes in the World (Broadway, 2005) and the classic bestseller How to Cook Everything, which has sold more than one million copies. He is also the coauthor, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, of Simple to Spectacular and Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Mr. Bittman is a prolific writer, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and is the host of The Best Recipes in the World, a 13-part series on public television. He lives in New York and Connecticut.