Smoky tomato salsa

Summer! Almost! But that's OK, because no one told the tomatoes they aren't supposed to be ripe yet, and they're already making an appearance in my kitchen. The ingredients in this salsa are "smoky" in that you cook them in an extremely hot, dry pan before hand, which transforms even mealy and pasty tomatoes into ingredients worthy of the noble name, "SALSA". 

Ingredients - and a large knife, lurking menacingly in the background...

2 large tomatoes

1 clove garlic

1/2 spring onion

1/2 cup herbs such as chives, coriander, parsley

1/2 teaspoon dried chilli or cayenne pepper

1 lemon

salt and pepper

Heat up a frying pan over a high heat. Throw in the tomatoes, garlic, and spring onion. Cook for around 5 minutes for the garlic and spring onion, and 10 minutes for the tomatoes, turning frequently so burnt patches develop all over the skin of the tomatoes. Remove from the heat, and leave somewhere to cool for at least half an hour, so you can handle the ingredients without burning your fingers!

Finely chop the garlic, spring onion, and herbs, and put into a mixing bowl. Dice the tomatoes, removing the hard bits around the stalk. Add to the bowl, along with the dried chilli. You can use powdered chilli or cayenne pepper - I used a whole dried cayenne pepper that my dad grew, and just broke it up into small pieces before adding it. 

Squeeze the lemon juice over the top, and stir everything together. I would recommend leaving it somewhere cool for at least half an hour before mixing again and seasoning, because it allows time for the flavours to all mix together. This salsa is great with...well, almost anything, really!