Shall We Salsa?

Salsa (Spanish for sauce) has been known primarily as a tasty and often very tangy tomato-based sauce. More recently, however, salsa has taken on new and exciting identities in culinary training.

The Many Faces of Salsa

Tomato-based red salsas can be very thin, like traditional hot sauce, or a smoother and thicker blend of roasted vegetables and chilies. Green salsa, made with tomatillos, is a milder salsa than red. One of the most popular salsas today is pico de gallo, which is made with freshly chopped tomatoes, onions, cilantro, chilies, and lime juice.

Fruit salsas are relatively new to culinary education. They can be served as an accompaniment to a variety of meat and fish dishes as well as used in the preparation of desserts. A culinary school can teach you how to make a variety of salsas from seasonal fruits that are available at your grocery store. Simple fruits like peaches, oranges, cranberries, melons, and apples and more exotic fruits like mangos and papayas can be used to make delicious fruit salsas.

You can also increase the versatility of your salsa by combining fruits with raw or roasted vegetables, such as onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, chili peppers, and corn. Serve this salsa on a bed of greens, and you have a healthy and colorful salad.

A Culinary Education on How to Salsa

You can use salsa to enhance flavor, add color, and complement a dish you are preparing. Meat and more robust fish dishes like salmon can usually support a more flavor-intense Salsa. You should use more subtly-flavored salsas, however, for dishes with more delicate flavors. A culinary education can help teach you these techniques.

Learning to Salsa in Culinary School

Cuisine that uses more of the fresh ingredient salsas and less of the classic bechamel and hollandaise cream sauces is gaining greater acceptance with today's trend toward eating healthier. Although salsa preparation is fairly simple, knowing which salsa is the perfect complement to a dish can best be learned by enrolling in culinary school.

About the Author

Judi Sandall is a technical writer and a regular Chef School Review columnist. Judi has also worked as a training consultant on contracts with Duke University and Bell Atlantic. She is a graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton, with a BA in English Literature.

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