Fancy pants salsa

One fateful evening a few weeks ago, I found in my possession the following: a pineapple, some tomatillos, and a red onion. I had some forbidden black rice risotto bubbling on the stove... and something told me to put salsa on my risotto? (And she calls herself a cook?!) I don't have much of an explanation for that. But the ending of that story? It was delicious! I whipped up this caramelized pineapple and tomatillo salsa for the first time, and it is definitely going to be a staple in my repertoire, and I have already made it a few times since.

I had a department formal event this past Friday, and I thought this grown-up salsa would be a nice addition. Turns out everyone in attendance agreed.

Now the salsa. When little M's boyfriend, chef P, was here in the fall, he made this grilled pineapple. And ever since I have been wanting to so something savory with pineapple, extra points if it involved broiling/grilling. Well since I was making up this salsa, I decided it was going to be caramelized pineapple and tomatillo salsa. So there.

Broiling the pineapple caramelizes the sugar on the outside and gives it this awesome flavor, and with a salsa verde backdrop? This one is a winner. It hits legit ever major delicious taste group: It has some spice from the jalapeño, some zip from the lime, some sweet from the pineapple, some tart from the tomatillo, and cooled down by cilantro. I dunno about you reading this, but as I am typing this... I am pretty convinced.

I'm also pretty sure it is entirely acceptable to eat a bowl of this for a meal. I mean, the ingredients are 100% fruits and vegetables. As an aside, sitting on the floor and eating entire jars of salsa/bags of tostitos with my roommate is one of my favorite memories from college.

Caramelized Pineapple and Tomatillo Salsa

Materials:

• 1 pineapple 
• 1/2 pound tomatillos, husked and halved
• olive oil
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 jalapeño, finely minced
• Juice from 2 limes
• salt and pepper

Methods:

1. Preheat the broiler.
2. Break down the pineapple, and then slice thinly such that you have thin slabs of pineapple.
3. Toss pineapple slabs and tomatillo halves in a drizzle of olive oil and lightly salt.
4. Spread out on cookie tray and place under broiler.
5. Broil for 5-10 minutes, or until the tomatillos are roasted and the pineapple is caramelized.
6. Keep an eye on them! The tomatillos will brown first, so take them out then.
7. In the meantime, chop up and combine all of the other ingredients. 
8. Once cooled, quickly pulse the tomatillos in the blender until it has a salsa verde consistency.
9. Finely dice the caramelized pineapple.
10. Combine all ingredients, and add salt and pepper to taste. 
11. Enjoy with some hint of lime tostitos :-)!

I just had my nails done, so they had to make their way into a photo :-).