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📘 How do you make fresh salsa?

You are standing in the chip aisle with a glass jar of supermarket salsa in one hand and a bag of Roma tomatoes in the other. Someone wants something to scoop before dinner, and the jar is already open in their head: cooked, a little sweet,

5
lessons
~25 min
to learn
Adults
level
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What you’ll learn

  1. Put the jar backChoose Kenji's chopped pico de gallo over a supermarket jar, cooked salsa roja, or salsa verde, and scale a one-quart first batch.Put the jar back. Tonight is raw chopped tomato, onion, chile, cilantro, lime, and salt. Cooked red and green are later. An adult owns the chile. You dice and taste.
  2. The tomatoes have to drainPick small ripe tomatoes, dice them, salt them, and drain 20 to 30 minutes so osmosis concentrates flavour and the pico stays scoopable.Romas or cherries. Quarter-inch dice. One teaspoon of salt. Twenty minutes in a strainer. The water leaves on purpose.
  3. Onion, chile, cilantro, limeRinse white onion, start with one serrano or jalapeño with the white ribs cut out, chop cilantro leaves and thin stems, and season with fresh lime.White onion, rinsed. Heat is in the chile's pale ribs. Cilantro is leaf and thin stem. Lime is acid. Wash your hands.
  4. Chop, mix, tasteChop with a knife not a blender, mix toward Bayless's four-to-one tomato-to-onion starting point, wait at least five minutes, and taste salt then lime then chile.Knife, not blender. Four parts tomato. Wait five minutes to an hour. Salt, lime, chile, in that order.
  5. Eat it while it's brightEat pico at room temperature within the first hour, refrigerate on the two-hour clock for up to three days, and name salsa verde and xnipec as later work.Room temperature. Two hours, then 3 days cold. Tomatillo verde and habanero xnipec are later. A watery bowl is information.

Questions this course answers

Kenji López-Alt salts chopped tomatoes and drains them for twenty to thirty minutes because:

Kenji: salt plus a strainer uses osmosis to draw off excess juice. What remains is brighter, denser, and less likely to drown the chips.

In your own words, why does seeding a jalapeño make pico milder, and what part of the chile should you actually cut out?

Kenji and Bayless both say remove seeds and membranes, or the seed pod and white veins. The heat factory is the rib. The seeds are bystanders.

Match each move to the job it does in tonight's pico Which pairing is right for “salt the tomatoes and drain”?

Drain the fruit. Rinse the onion. Seed the ribs. Then wait. That is the whole method.

Put tonight's pico in the order that keeps it scoopable Which order is correct?

Dice first so the drain can run while you chop. Mix second. Eat third. Fridge last.

Rick Bayless's weighing starting point for chopped tomato salsa is:

Bayless: if he is weighing, he likes 4 parts tomato to 1 part onion, then adds the rest a little at a time and tastes.

USDA FSIS leftover guidance: after it is cold, homemade pico keeps in the refrigerator about how many days?

USDA FSIS: leftovers 3 to 4 days in the fridge. Kenji says up to 3 days and the onion gets louder after day one. The two-hour clock starts when the bowl leaves the counter.

Grounded in trusted sources

  • J. Kenji López-Alt, Classic Pico de Gallo (salsa fresca / salsa mexicana), Serious Eats, updated 19 September 2025, 1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes in 1/4- to 1/2-inch dice (about 3 cups), 1 teaspoon (4 g) kosher salt, drain 20 to 30 minutes in a fine-mesh strainer, 1/2 large white onion finely diced (about 3/4 cup), 1 to 2 serrano or jalapeño chiles finely diced (seeds and membranes removed for milder), 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro leaves, 1 tablespoon lime juice, season to taste, yield 1 quart / 16 servings, keeps up to 3 days refrigerated, osmosis explanation, smaller plum cherry or grape tomatoes off-season, white onion rinsed if pungent, https://www.seriouseats.com/classic-pico-de-gallo-salsa-fresca-recipe
  • Rick Bayless, Chopped Tomato Salsa (AKA Pico de Gallo), rickbayless.com, ingredients set in stone proportions are not, 4 parts tomato to 1 part onion if weighing, 12 ounces ripe tomatoes red-ripe through the core (2 medium-large or 4 medium plum) chopped about 1/4-inch, 1/2 medium white onion rinsed under cold water, 1 serrano or small jalapeño stemmed seed pod and white veins removed if milder then chopped fine, 6 or 8 cilantro sprigs sliced leaves and stems, a couple tablespoons lime, scant teaspoon salt, most flavourful about an hour later at room temperature, after 6 to 8 hours onions take over, xnipec is Yucatán red onion and habanero with sour orange, https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/chopped-tomato-salsa-aka-pico-de-gallo/
  • Pati Jinich, Pico de Gallo Salsa, patijinich.com, 15 minutes, yield 4 cups, 1 pound ripe tomatoes cored and chopped (about 3 cups), 1/2 cup finely chopped white onion, 1 jalapeño or serrano finely chopped or to taste, 1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves and top stems, 2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil optional for flavour, 1 teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt, toss and sit at least 5 minutes, comment 30 Jan: as many picos as cooks, usual marks are chopped raw ingredients, citrus, and some kind of chile, https://patijinich.com/pico-de-gallo-salsa/
  • America's Test Kitchen, Fresh Tomato Salsa, published 5 April 2011, Cook's Illustrated July/August 2004, 1 1/2 pounds firm ripe tomatoes 3/8-inch dice (about 3 cups), drain 30 minutes in a colander, 1 large jalapeño seeded with seeds reserved and minced, 1/2 cup minced red onion, 1 small garlic clove, 1/4 cup cilantro, 1/2 teaspoon table salt, 2 to 6 teaspoons lime, pinch sugar, they chose red onion for colour and flavour and jalapeño for availability and moderate heat, hold salt lime and sugar until serving if made 2 to 3 hours ahead, https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/1464-fresh-tomato-salsa
  • America's Test Kitchen, Pico de Gallo, toss tomatoes with 1/4 teaspoon salt, transfer to colander, drain 30 minutes, combine drained tomatoes with onion, cilantro, jalapeño, and lime, https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/7556-pico-de-gallo
  • U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Program Information Manual: Retail Food Protection Storage and Handling of Tomatoes, cut tomatoes are PHF/TCS because pH about 4.2 to 4.8 and high water activity support Salmonella, refrigerate at 5°C / 41°F or less, salsa with chopped tomatoes acidified with vinegar lemon or lime to pH below 4.2 is non-TCS, salsa without enough acid remains TCS, https://www.fda.gov/food/retail-food-industryregulatory-assistance-training/program-information-manual-retail-food-protection-storage-and-handling-tomatoes
  • USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, perishable food into the refrigerator within 2 hours or 1 hour if air is over 90°F, leftovers 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator, https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/leftovers-and-food-safety
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tomato Handling, restaurant food safety, refrigerating cut tomatoes at 41°F or less, holding unrefrigerated cut tomatoes for 4 hours or less, https://www.cdc.gov/restaurant-food-safety/php/practices/tomato-handling.html

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