Pico de Gallo (Salsa)

My family and I spent several years living in Mexico and one of the recipes that all of our Mexican friends made was Pico de Gallo.  It is easy to make, doesn't require cooking, and uses all fresh wholesome ingredients.  It is especially delicious in the summer when you have access to good vine-ripened tomatoes.  Eat it as a dip with tortilla chips, add it to tacos, use as a topping for baked potatoes or rice, or any other way you would normally use salsa.

Pico de Gallo

• 3 medium tomatoes
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 bell pepper
• 1-3 fresh jalapenos
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 lime (or 2 tablespoons lime juice)

Chop the tomatoes fairly small, dice onion and bell pepper, remove ribs and seeds from jalapenos and dice as fine as possible (you don't want to bite into a chunk of jalapeno), add cilantro, salt and squeeze lime juice over everything.  Mix well and let sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. It will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days, but mine never lasts that long.  

I have been making this for years, and never measure the ingredients.  Feel free to change the quantity of anything as much as you like.  Our Mexican friends never used bell pepper and used more jalapenos, but I don't like mine that hot, and the bell pepper adds flavor.  

I would not recommend using canned or frozen ingredients (other than lime juice) because the fresh ingredients are what makes this so delicious.  I would also not recommend using a food processor to chop the veggies, because it's too hard to keep them uniform and not too small.