Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde

Tomatillos should be firm with tight-fitting husks. The sticky coating under the husk washes off easily. Charring is essential - it adds depth and smoky complexity. For milder salsa, remove serrano seeds. Don't skip the cilantro - it defines the flavor.

Salsa verde made from tomatillos is one of the oldest condiment preparations in the Americas, rooted in the culinary traditions of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica) is native to Mexico and Central America and was cultivated by the Aztecs under the Nahuatl name tomatl — the same word that gave us the word tomato — centuries before the Spanish tomato variety became dominant. Friar Bernardino de Sahagún documented Aztec food culture in detail in his 1569 Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva España, recording green-chile sauces made with tomatillos as central to Aztec cooking. The roasting technique applied to tomatillos for this recipe — placing them under a broiler or directly on a comal until charred and softened — develops a deeper, slightly smoky character by triggering the Maillard reaction, concentrating the tomatillo's natural tartness while adding dimension. This roasting method mirrors the techniques documented in pre-Columbian cooking, where ingredients were charred directly on clay griddles. Tomatillos arrived in the United States in commercial quantities only in the late 20th century as Mexican immigration expanded and Latin grocery stores introduced the ingredient to broader markets; by the 1990s they were available in mainstream American supermarkets, and salsa verde became a fixture on the American condiment shelf.