Grapefruit Pico de Gallo

OK, well I mentioned this salsa in a Facebook post and now a few of y’all have asked for the recipe. It’s super simple, and here ya go. If you don’t make your own fresh salsa as a routine, it’s time to start – Here’s another place where it’s a serious night and day difference from store bought.

Pico de Gallo is a fresh salsa, and such, it’s quick to make. With pico, you want the sweet notes of tomato, onion, and cilantro to mesh with the chile heat, and nothing furthers that combination better than citrus. This is a great salsa to make shortly before meal time, but it’ll be twice as good then next day. This recipe will make enough to last for two or three meals, most likely.

4 medium Tomatoes
2-4 Jalapeño Chiles
1 large pink Grapefruit
1 Lime
1 sweet Onion
Handful go fresh Cilantro
Sea Salt

I do this in a mini food processor powered by a stick blender, but you can certainly do it by hand. Size of dice is up to you; we like it fine, minced in fact, because it spreads and blends better.

Process tomatoes and toss into a non-reactive mixing bowl. Process onion, then cilantro and add to the tomatoes.

Feel free to sub a chile you like better for jalapeño down the line, but try this first. If you like it hot, don’t field strip your chiles; if you’re cooking for a broad spectrum of diners, be kind and do strip ’em. Process with the cilantro and add to the mix; cilantro is also a personal taste note, so use more or less as you see fit.

Cut grapefruit in quarters and the lime in half. Squeeze the grapefruit by hand over the bowl and absolutely do let some of the crushed fruit go in there too. Squeeze lime next, take care to keep seeds out of the mix.

Give all a good stir, taste and season with a shake of salt as you see fit; it’ll brighten up the mix and bring flavor out, so don’t skip it.

Allow ingredients to marry in the bowl for an hour prior to serving. The salsa will last a good few days refrigerated.

For a wonderful alternative, try roasting or grilling everybody, including the fruit; it brings out a very subtle note of smoke and heightens the sweet tones nicely.

Smoked salt is another neat alternative that you might try as sub for regular sea salt.

Enjoy!

Author: urbanmonique

I cook, write, throw flies, and play music in the Great Pacific Northwet. View all posts by urbanmonique