Salsa--Pico de Gallo

Pico de Gallo is my favorite salsa and happily quite easy.

Couple of tomatoes (I usually use Roma but any kind are fine)

Cilantro

Jalapeños or serranos (chiles)

onion (I use yellow)

Lime juice

Salt and pepper

So, you dice the onion and chiles and tomatoes and, if so inclined, after washing the cilantro really well (which you HAVE to do), either de stem it (seems to take forever) or chop off the bottom bigger stems and lose some leaves in the process and chop the rest. I usually am super lazy and just use my $10 Black and Decker chopper/slicer but a food processor on the largest cut or a blender can do the same, just pulse and don't puree. Adjust chiles to heat desire (three is spicy, one is not, but depends on chiles). Generally one onion and three to five tomatoes (depending on size) per cilantro bunch. Then, the juice of one lime (I have a great wooden thing from a kitchen store for this, looks like a mini thick pointer with a handle, like three inches long) and salt and pepper to taste. Stir with spoon and let sit maybe two to five minutes and serve with chips. Also great in Quesadillas, as a soup base, to add to spaghetti sauce, to add to anything really.

For salsa verde (green salsa), use tomatillos and not red tomatoes.

For guacamole, use about half the salsa recipe, two to three avocados, and some paprika if you like it and whirl for a few seconds in chopper, blender or processor. For guacamole, add LOTS of lime juice so it doesn't go brown.