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In honor of Cinco de Mayo I decided to leave poor hummus alone for awhile and take a crack at revamping salsa.
That said, last week I was handed about 20 pounds of tomatoes at work. They were left over props from a fashion photo shoot. After giving two big bags away and making a huge pot of tomato sauce, many more were still lurking in every corner of my fridge.
I was intrigued with the idea of tequila salsa but a google search turned up a fair amount of recipes. So of course I took things one step further and created a cilantro pepita pesto to mix in with the basic salsa. Pesto is one other dish I can’t seem to leave alone.
Ay caramba is this good. The cilantro pesto is terrific by itself and mixed together with the salsa, this is one fun fiesta in a bowl. Andele!
Tequila Cilantro Pepita Pesto Salsa
For the Tequila Salsa:
Ingredients:
- 2-3 Tomatoes diced
- 1/2 Sweet Onion diced
- 2+1/s tablespoons tequila
- Juice of 1/2 lime
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
Directions:
- Mix the chopped tomatoes and onions together.
- Add the lime juice and the tequila.
- Season with the salt and chili powder.
- Mix throughly and let stand at room temperature for about 1/2 hour
For the Cilantro Pepita Pesto:
(makes more than you will need to mix into the salsa but believe me you will want to have the rest on hand to add to pasta, spread on crostini, etc. or you can double the salsa recipe above.)
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch of cilantro
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup pepitas
- 1 teaspoon chili powder (or more depending upon how spicy you like it)
- kosher salt to taste
Directions:
- Strip the leaves off the cilantro and discard the stems.
- place cilantro leaves, garlic cloves, olive oil, pepitas in a food processor and blend.
- Add chili powder and salt to taste and blend throughly.
For the Tequila Cilantro Pepita Pesto Salsa:
Mix the pesto into the salsa one teaspoon at a time, tasting as you go until your satisfaction. I served this salsa with whole grain tortilla chips. A perfect choice to soak up the tequila.
4 comments
Oh baby! You had me at tequila! Love your creativity – you're the Re-Vamp! ;-P
huuuuge fan of pesto and tomatoes. This looks so delicious! I would really love to try it!! Happy Cinco de Mayo! looks like everyone's having lots of fun with this day!
Looks amazing, sounds delicious. You are so creative!
P.S. BTW, if you ever get leftover baking good props from a photo shoot call me!!
I tend to eternally maintain that pesto makes everythign better and you've definitely proved that with this salsa! Sounds delicious!