Late in the Winter season, or early in the Spring season, there comes a time where you run out of canned tomatoes. Why do we can tomatoes in the first place? Because the ones shipped in from other parts of the country, or even other continents, are not as fresh. They were picked days ago and then ripened with ethylene gas.
So you reach this point of the year, and while you could go out and purchase grocery store tomatoes, you know that they will not work. They will throw your homemade salsa’s taste off just enough.
This is when canned salsas become very useful. And canned salsa is what we used the other night while enjoying buffalo fajitas.
Specifically, this was Salpica Rustic Tomato Salsa, made by Frontera Kitchens.
Ingredients: Tomatoes, filtered water, tomato paste, mild red chiles, garlic, onion, apple cider vinegar, salt, cilantro, citric acid, calcium chloride.
The only iffy ingredient is calcium chloride; but calcium chloride is naturally-occurring and quite common. In this case it is being used as a natural preservative (and perhaps also to give the salsa a slightly salty kick).
Taste-wise, the Salpica salsa was a bit watery but full of flavor; it worked very well as an additive to the fajitas but not well as a tortilla chip dip. In this way, the Salpica was very similar to another canned salsa I tried last year from Green Mountain Gringo.
Real Food Grade: B [Natural, but not organic]