Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde
Tart, smoky, and vivid green — roasted tomatillos and serrano peppers blended into a salsa that has been on Mexican tables for thousands of years. No salsa verde, no table.
- 1 lbtomatillos(husked and rinsed)
- 2 wholeserrano peppers
- 1/2 mediumwhite onion(quartered)
- 3 clovesgarlic(unpeeled)
- 1/2 cupfresh cilantro(packed)
- 1 tbsplime juice(fresh squeezed)
- 3/4 tspkosher salt
Keeps refrigerated up to 1 week. Freezes well for up to 3 months.
- 1Preheat broiler to high
- 2Place tomatillos, serranos, onion, and garlic on a baking sheet
- 3Broil 5-7 minutes until charred, flip and broil another 5 minutes
- 4Let cool slightly, then peel garlic
- 5Add all roasted vegetables to blender with cilantro, lime juice, and salt
- 6Blend until desired consistency - chunky or smooth
- 7Taste and adjust salt and lime
- 8Serve at room temperature or chilled
Roasting the tomatillos mellows their tartness and adds complexity. Adjust heat by adding or removing serrano seeds.
Salsa verde is one of the oldest sauces in the world still made in essentially the same way today. Wikipedia confirms it dates to the Aztec Empire and was documented by the Spanish physician Francisco Hernández in his encyclopaedic survey of Mexican plants and foods in the 16th century. The tomatillo — the small, papery-husked fruit that forms the sauce's base — was domesticated by the Aztecs in central Mexico around 800 BCE, according to Britannica, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History confirms that the Aztecs are credited with this domestication. The fruit was called miltomate in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs, meaning a round, plump fruit that grew in the milpa (the communal cornfield), and it was a central ingredient in the Aztec food system alongside corn, squash, and beans. Bernardino de Sahagún's Florentine Codex — compiled in the years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the early 16th century — documents the Aztec use of salsas combining tomatillos and chilli peppers, providing one of the clearest historical records of the preparation that became salsa verde. Following the conquest, Spanish colonists took the tomatillo back to Europe, though it never achieved the popularity of its relative the tomato. Roasting tomatillos — charring them directly over flame or under a dry griddle — is an ancient Mesoamerican technique that deepens their tartness and adds a smokiness that raw tomatillos cannot provide. In that sense, this recipe is not merely inspired by history; it is a continuation of it.