Puerca o Cerda con Salsa Rouge

I am like a little kid in a candy shop when I get a new cookbook.  I just have to make something out of it right away.  Last night was no exception.  I looked through my new little cookbook,  Salsas and Tacos, and made a salsa rouge.  A surprise in the Mail  I had all the ingredients and it was a simple recipe to make that did not take to much time.  This was just what I needed since I got a late start on making dinner.  I also roasted a pork loin, and this salsa rouge was a perfect compliment to the pork.  I still had some Moroccan pumpkin and lentils that I needed to use, Moroccan Pumpkin and Lentil Stew so I planned a Spanish meal around this.  Spain and Morocco are neighbors, and there is a lot of crossover in foods between the two countries, making this a perfect blend of the two.

Salsa Rouge

1 red pepper, roasted, peeled and seeded, diced fine

1 cup ripe tomatoes, diced fine

1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil

1/4 red onion, diced fine

1 TBSP garlic

1 jalapeno, diced fine

1/3 cup chopped basil or 1 heaping TBSP of dried basil

3 TBSP red wine vinegar

3 TBSP olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

pinch of super fine sugar

 

Roast the pepper until it is completely blackened, then let it sweat for about 30 minutes before peeling and seeding it.  Roasting Peppers

Once the pepper is roasted, cooled and peeled.  Dice it into a fine dice.  Mix all the rest of the ingredients together, combining everything well.

This salsa is especially good on meats, but is also good on just about anything you would use salsa for.  It would also be very good on top of pasta too.  This is not a spicy salsa, like a pico de fallo, but if you like it spicier, just add more jalapenos and pepper.  It went very well over my roasted pork loin.

For the pork, all I did was coat it with salt and pepper and red wine vinegar.  I roasted at 425* F for about 20 minutes, then I reduced the heat to 350* F for the duration of the cooking time.  The total cooking time was about 1 hour.  it was very moist and tender.

To make the meal complete, I roasted some cauliflower and broccoli that I added, along with my stromboli, and a few avocado slices.  A Stromboli Eruption.  The meal was finished off perfectly with a glass or two of a good Spanish temperanillo.  !Perfecto!