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Salsas Pestos and Chutneys

Salsas, Pestos and Chutneys covers the chopped, pounded and blended sauces: raw or lightly cooked mixtures of vegetables, fruit, herbs, nuts, chillies and acid that are mostly not thickened, not emulsified and not built on a stock. They belong to the Sauces hub. Their character comes from texture (how finely things are cut or ground), freshness (most are best within hours or days), and the balance of salt, acid, heat and fat. Because many are raw and low-acid, their storage rules matter more than those of cooked sauces.

Salsas

Salsa simply means "sauce" in Spanish; in English it usually means the Mexican and Latin American family.

• Pico de gallo (salsa fresca, salsa bandera): diced raw tomato, white onion, serrano or jalapeño, coriander leaf, lime juice and salt. Salt it shortly before serving: salt draws water out of the tomato and the salsa turns soupy within an hour. Keeps 1–3 days refrigerated.
• Salsa roja (cooked): tomatoes and chillies boiled, or charred on a comal, then blended with garlic and onion. Frying the blended salsa briefly in a little hot oil (sazonar or freír la salsa) darkens and deepens it.
• Salsa verde: tomatillos (husked, rinsed of their sticky coating), boiled or roasted, blended with serrano, onion, garlic and coriander. Tomatillos are high in pectin, so the salsa thickens as it cools. A raw version (salsa verde cruda) is sharper.
• Molcajete salsas: charred tomato, chilli and garlic ground in a basalt mortar. The grinding gives a coarse, emulsified texture a blender can't.
• Dried-chilli salsas: guajillo, ancho, árbol, pasilla or chipotle, toasted briefly (seconds per side; burnt chillies are bitter), soaked in hot water and blended. Salsa taquera is a thin árbol-and-tomatillo version.
• Salsa macha: dried chillies, garlic, nuts and seeds fried in oil and coarsely ground; the oil is the body. Because it is garlic and solids under oil, store it refrigerated unless made by a tested acidified method (see the safety section).
• Fruit salsas: mango, pineapple, peach or watermelon with chilli, red onion, lime and herbs. Best within a day.
• Pebre (Chile): coriander, onion, garlic, ají and oil. Salsa criolla (Peru, Argentina): thin-sliced onion with lime or vinegar and ají.
• Heat control: most of a chilli's capsaicin is in the placenta (the pale ribs) rather than the flesh or seeds. Removing the ribs cuts heat sharply. Wear gloves for hot chillies, and don't touch your eyes.

Pestos and herb sauces

• Pesto alla genovese: basil (ideally young-leaved Genovese basil), garlic, coarse salt, pine nuts, a mix of Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino (traditionally Fiore Sardo), and Ligurian extra-virgin olive oil, pounded in a marble mortar with a wooden pestle. Pounding crushes the leaves and releases aroma without the heat and over-shearing of a blender, which can make the oil bitter. Typical proportion: about 50 g basil, 1–2 garlic cloves, 15 g pine nuts, 45–60 g cheese, 80–100 mL oil.
• Keeping it green: basil browns because cutting lets polyphenol oxidase act on its phenolic compounds. Blanch the leaves 5–15 seconds in boiling water and shock them in ice water to inactivate the enzyme; work fast and cold; cover the surface with a film of oil. A little parsley or lemon (ascorbic acid) also helps.
• Variants: pistou (Provence: basil, garlic, oil, no nuts, often no cheese), pesto alla trapanese (Sicily: almonds, raw tomato, basil, garlic), pesto rosso (sun-dried tomato), wild-garlic, rocket, kale and nettle pestos (blanch nettles to disarm the stinging hairs).
• Chimichurri (Argentina, Uruguay): parsley, oregano, garlic, chilli flakes, red-wine vinegar and oil; for grilled meat. Rest it 30 minutes so the garlic and herbs flavour the vinegar.
• Italian salsa verde: parsley, capers, anchovy, garlic, vinegar or lemon, oil, sometimes bread soaked in vinegar to bind; for boiled meats (bollito misto) and fish.
• Gremolata: lemon zest, garlic and parsley, chopped dry; for osso buco.
• Zhug (skhug) (Yemen, Israel): coriander, green chilli, garlic, cumin, cardamom, oil. Chermoula (Maghreb): coriander, parsley, garlic, cumin, paprika, lemon, oil; a marinade and sauce for fish. Green sauce (Germany, Frankfurter grüne Soße): seven herbs in sour cream or yogurt.

Chutneys

In South Asia, chutney (from Hindi caṭnī, "to lick") covers a broad range of relishes eaten in small amounts with a meal. Two quite different kinds share the name.

• Fresh chutneys (made daily, eaten within 1–3 days):
• Coriander–mint (hari chutney): coriander, mint, green chilli, ginger, lemon or lime, salt, sometimes yogurt or a little sugar.
• Coconut chutney (South India): fresh grated coconut, green chilli, roasted chana dal, ginger, ground with water, finished with a tadka (mustard seed, curry leaves, urad dal and dried chilli sizzled in oil). For dosa and idli.
• Tamarind (imli) chutney: tamarind pulp cooked with jaggery or dates, cumin, ginger and black salt; sweet-sour, for chaat and samosas.
• Peanut, sesame, tomato and onion chutneys from different regions, ground or cooked briefly.
• Cooked, preserved chutneys (keeping chutneys): fruit or vegetables (mango, tomato, apple, plum, onion) simmered with vinegar, sugar and spices until thick enough that a spoon dragged across the pan leaves a channel that does not fill at once. The British-Indian tradition (e.g. Major Grey's mango chutney) and British Branston-style pickles descend from this. Vinegar and sugar make them stable when hot-packed in sterilized jars; use a tested recipe for any shelf storage.
• Achar (Indian pickles) are related but distinct: fruit or vegetables preserved in oil, salt, acid and spices, sometimes sun-cured or fermented. See Pickling and Preservation and Fermentation.
• Raita is a yogurt condiment, not a chutney: yogurt with cucumber, onion, mint or boondi, and roasted cumin.

Relishes and condiments in the same family

• Sweet pickle relish, chow-chow, piccalilli: chopped vegetables cooked in a vinegar–sugar brine; piccalilli is thickened with flour or cornstarch and coloured with turmeric and mustard.
• Ajvar (Balkans): roasted red pepper and aubergine, slow-cooked with oil and garlic. Muhammara (Syria): roasted red pepper, walnut, breadcrumbs, pomegranate molasses and Aleppo pepper.
• Cranberry sauce: cranberries cooked with sugar until they burst; their pectin sets the sauce.

Food safety for raw and oil-based sauces

• Raw salsas, pestos and herb sauces are perishable: keep them refrigerated (at or below 4 °C / 40 °F), and don't leave them out more than 2 hours (1 hour above 32 °C / 90 °F).
• Garlic, herbs or chillies under oil are a botulism risk at room temperature, because oil excludes oxygen and these ingredients are low in acid and can carry Clostridium botulinum spores. Refrigerate pesto, chimichurri, salsa macha and similar sauces and use them within a few days, or freeze them (pesto freezes well in ice-cube trays; add the cheese after thawing for best texture). CDC guidance is to refrigerate homemade oils with garlic or herbs and discard them after 4 days. Shelf-stable versions require a tested acidification method; see Sauce Food Safety Acidification pH Garlic in Oil and Refrigeration.
• Canning salsa needs a tested recipe. Tomatoes, onions and peppers together are not reliably acidic enough. Tested recipes (e.g. the National Center for Home Food Preservation's "Choice Salsa": 6 cups prepared tomatoes, 9 cups diced onions and/or peppers, 1½ cups commercially bottled lemon or lime juice, 3 teaspoons canning salt, 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner for pints at 0–1,000 ft) fix the proportions. The rules: don't increase the onions, peppers or other low-acid vegetables; you may swap one kind of pepper or onion for another; spices and dried herbs can change; bottled lemon or lime juice can replace vinegar, but not the reverse (and not bottled key-lime juice); don't thicken with flour or cornstarch before canning; don't reduce the acid. Your own original recipe should be refrigerated or frozen, not canned.
• Fresh salsa from a restaurant or deli is a known outbreak vehicle (salmonella, hepatitis A) when produce isn't washed or staff handle it barehanded. Wash produce, keep it cold and make it in small batches.

Infused herb sauces

Pesto, chimichurri and similar sauces are oil-based, which makes them a natural carrier for an oil-soluble active ingredient: an infused oil can replace part of the olive oil. The problem is keeping it even: solids settle, oil separates, and people scoop unevenly. Mix just before portioning, portion by weighed or measured serving, and keep it refrigerated. See Infused Sauces and Dressings Even Dosing per Serving, Keeping Liquids Evenly Mixed Solubility Emulsions and Suspensions and Tinctures Glycerites Syrups and Infused Oils and Butters.

See also

• Sauces
• Hot Sauces and Fermented Sauces
• Barbecue Sauces Marinades and Glazes
• Emulsified Sauces Mayonnaise Aioli Vinaigrettes and Beurre Blanc
• Regional Sauces of the World
• Sauce Food Safety Acidification pH Garlic in Oil and Refrigeration
• Infused Sauces and Dressings Even Dosing per Serving
• Pickling and Preservation
• Fermentation
• Cooking with Herbs and Spices
• Culinary Recipes
• Food Safety
• Baking

Sources

• Kennedy, D. The Essential Cuisines of Mexico. Clarkson Potter, 2000. Table salsas, cooked salsas and chilli preparation.
• Bayless, R. Authentic Mexican, 20th anniversary ed. William Morrow, 2007. Salsas, the molcajete and frying salsas.
• Consorzio del Pesto Genovese. Disciplinare (recipe protocol) for Pesto Genovese, and Slow Food descriptions of the traditional mortar method.
• Jaffrey, M. An Invitation to Indian Cooking. Knopf, 1973; and Achaya, K. T. A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food. Oxford University Press, 1998. Chutney types and etymology.
• McGee, H. On Food and Cooking, rev. ed. Scribner, 2004. Enzymatic browning in herbs; capsaicin distribution in chillies.
• Peterson, J. Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making, 4th ed. Wiley, 2017. Salsas, relishes, herb sauces and chutneys.
• National Center for Home Food Preservation. "Choice Salsa." NCHFP
• Powers-Hammond, L. Salsa Recipes for Canning, PNW 395. Pacific Northwest Extension (WSU, OSU, University of Idaho), rev. 2014. OSU Extension
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Preventing Botulism: Home-Canned Foods" (homemade oils with garlic or herbs: refrigerate, discard after 4 days). CDC

Coverage

Salsas (pico de gallo and why to salt late, cooked salsa roja and frying the salsa, tomatillo salsa verde, molcajete and dried-chilli salsas, salsa macha, fruit salsas, pebre and criolla, where capsaicin sits); pestos and herb sauces (genovese method and proportions, keeping basil green, pistou, trapanese and other variants, chimichurri, Italian salsa verde, gremolata, zhug, chermoula, grüne Soße); fresh and cooked chutneys, achar and raita; vinegar relishes, ajvar, muhammara and cranberry sauce; food safety (refrigeration and time limits, garlic and herbs under oil, the tested-salsa canning rules with the NCHFP Choice Salsa example, outbreak risks); infused herb sauces as oil-based carriers and how to portion them evenly.

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