Recipe: Tomatillo and Roasted Garlic Salsa (“Sweet Torture”)

8-10 medium to large tomatillos
1 large or 2 small ripe tomatoes
1 head of garlic
1 jalapeño pepper, cut into ½” sections*
1 chile serrano, cut the same as jalapeños*
1 or 2 chipotle chiles in adobo
1/2 red onion
1/2 c. chopped cilantro
Juice of 3 key limes

*I like to make this salsa pretty hot – you can always take it in smaller amounts if you need to. I usually leave the seeds in the chiles, but take them out if you don’t want it so hot.

Peel and rinse the tomatillos and place them on a foil-lined sheet in a 350º oven or toaster oven (on bake). Separate garlic cloves and cut off the end where they were connected. Place on a piece of foil, drizzle with olive oil, and place it and the onion in oven with tomatillos. Keep an eye on the garlic and onion – as soon as they just begin to brown or garlic cloves yield easily when you push on them with the dull side of the knife blade, remove them. Let garlic cloves cool and peel them. Turn tomatillos after 8-10 minutes and bake until they begin to collapse, 15-20 minutes total. Chop tomatoes into 1/2” dice. Finely chop onion.

When tomatillos are done, place them carefully in a blender with the juice they released. Add garlic, onion and chiles and puree briefly, leaving mixture slightly chunky. Add remaining ingredients and blend on low speed until well mixed.