Recipe #48 - Pico de Gallo

Some days my life is so crazy that I have to write down an hour-by-hour schedule of the entire day, just so that I make sure I get everywhere that I need to be.  On days like this, I should just order pizza.  But last week, I was in this panic over not being remotely close to finishing this cookbook and knowing that the new cookbook is out already.  My sleep-deprived brain came up with the dumbest idea to make several recipes in one day.  Yes, on the day that I had so much going on at once.

My thinking was that there were several things that I could make for dinner and have them ready in advance.  So I went to town on my Mexican dinner and planned to make these four recipes:

Flour Tortillas
Pico de Gallo
Guacamole
Grilled Taco Chicken

I had actually considered making the Brazilian Lemonade too, but luckily, I talked myself out of it.

So we'll start with one of the easy ones I prepped in advance -- Pico de Gallo.  It is found on page 48 of the cookbook or online here.

You start with 3 Roma tomatoes.  Cut off the ends of them and slice them in half.

Next, run them under cool water and gently remove the seeds.

Then you dice the tomatoes nice and small and put them in a bowl.

Now dice the onion (I chose to use a red onion.) and add it to the tomatoes.

Next dice a small jalapeno nice and small.  You can include the seeds if you like.  That's were the majority of the "heat" is.  Since my family is wimpy when it comes to spicy stuff, I didn't include any of the seeds.

Stir all three items together.  Looking good already!

Add a squeeze of lime now.

Finally, you stir in the cilantro and some salt, and you're all set!

I love the beautiful colors of this pico de gallo!

This pico is delicious just after it is made, but I thought it was considerably better after being in the fridge for a couple hours.  The flavors all meshed, and it was perfect.  If you're a pico fan, you have to try this one!