While nothing quite beats my beloved Coriander/Cilantro and Jalapeño Salsa for ease, this Red-Hot Roast Salsa is scarcely difficult to make: you put everything — garlic cloves, red onions, chillies and bell peppers — on a baking sheet (or shallow baking tray, and it is essential it’s shallow) and leave it to roast in a hot oven until softened and charred, at which point you take a stick blender to it. It’s the char that makes all the difference, and I can’t have enough of this sweet, smoky and spicy salsa. Well, spicy is perhaps to underplay it: chillies, even of the same type, really do differ a lot in strength, so it can be difficult to calibrate the heat exactly but, with the number of chillies I use, this is either really fiery or really, really fiery. You can reduce the amount of chillies of course, but I like this to blow my head off. While I first made this as a dip for tortilla chips, I must also recommend dolloping it alongside fried halloumi. Indeed, it makes — for fire-eaters — a wonderful all-round condiment, an incendiary ketchup to be splodged on whenever you’re seeking flame and flavour. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
