Salsa: It’s Not Just for Chips

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Officials in the Reagan Administration caused a public furor in 1981, when they proposed reclassifying ketchup and pickle relish as vegetables, a bureaucratic sleight-of-hand that would have allowed school lunch programs to eliminate a serving of vegetables and still meet government nutritional requirements. The proposed directive, luckily, was never implemented.

That controversy predated salsa’s rise to prominence in American gastronomy. It wasn’t until the mid- to late 1980s that people throughout the United States caught on to salsa’s allure; by 2000, salsa had surpassed ketchup as America’s favorite condiment.

Salsas made with fresh produce may not substitute for vegetables, but neither are they merely condiments. A homemade salsa can be like a salad, or it can accompany fish, chicken or grains as a side dish or sauce. You can add vegetables (cucumber, zucchini, avocado or corn) to the traditional mixture of tomatoes, onions, cilantro and chiles. Or you can make a salsa with fresh fruit, like mango or melon.

Ketchup never had a shot as a vegetable. Salsa just might have.

Mussels on the Half-Shell With Salsa Fresca

This is a beautiful way to present mussels. First, they’re steamed and tossed with fresh tomato salsa, and then the mussels are set in their shells. If you’re making a meal of these, you’ll need the four pounds of mussels called for in the recipe. If you’re serving them as an hors d’oeuvre, you can cut the recipe in half.

For the salsa:

2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes, chopped

1/2 small red onion, minced

2 to 3 jalapeño or serrano peppers (to taste), seeded and minced

4 tablespoons chopped cilantro (more to taste)

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice or 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar (optional)

For the mussels:

4 pounds mussels

Salt or vinegar

1 cup dry white wine

2 shallots or 1/2 onion, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, crushed

Chopped cilantro for garnish

1. Make the salsa. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Do not add salt yet.

2. Clean the mussels. Brush them and pull out their beards. Discard any with cracked or open shells. Place in a bowl, and rinse in several changes of cold water. Cover with cold water, and stir in a generous amount of salt or 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Let sit 15 minutes. Drain, rinse and soak again for 15 minutes. Drain and rinse.

3. Combine the wine, onion (or shallots) and garlic in a large pot or wok, and bring to a boil. Add the mussels, cover and steam five minutes or until the mussels open (this may be easier for you if you do it in two batches). Shake the pot or stir halfway through steaming to redistribute the mussels. Using tongs, remove the mussels to a bowl. Strain the cooking liquid into another bowl through a cheesecloth-lined strainer. Set aside.

4. Remove the mussels from their shells, and set the shells aside. Discard any mussels that haven’t opened. Rinse the mussels very briefly to wash away any lingering sand.

5. In a large bowl, mix together the salsa with 1 cup of the strained cooking liquid from the mussels. Taste, and add salt if desired. Toss the mussels with this mixture, cover and refrigerate for one hour or longer.

6. To serve, place mussels on half-shells and spoon on some salsa. Arrange on a platter, and garnish with cilantro.

Yield: Serves four to six as a meal, 15 to 20 as an hors d’oeuvre.

Advance preparation: The cooked mussels can be refrigerated in the marinade for up to a day.

Martha Rose Shulman can be reached at martha-rose-shulman.com.

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