Fresh Tomato Relish

What I Know After Making This Every Summer

Start with the best tomatoes you can find. Look for firm, heavy tomatoes with a bright, fragrant aroma near the stem. Beefsteak, Roma, cherry, or heirloom all work beautifully when they are truly ripe.

Chop everything fine and uniform. The smaller and more even your chop, the better each bite holds together on a cracker, a piece of toast, or a grilled piece of chicken. Rough chopping makes it hard to eat with anything delicate.

Taste your jalapeño before it goes in. Heat levels vary wildly from pepper to pepper. Taste a small piece first, then decide how much to add. For a crowd with mixed spice tolerance, start with half and add from there.

Give it time to chill. That one hour in the refrigerator is not optional. It is when the vinegar does its work and all the flavors come together into something much more than the sum of their parts.

Make it a day ahead when you can. This relish gets better overnight. The flavors deepen and the vinegar mellows just enough to let the tomato flavor come forward. Day two is even better than day one.

What Goes In and Why It Matters

• Fresh tomatoes are the whole point. Use whatever is ripest and most fragrant right now. The variety matters less than the quality.
• Vidalia or sweet onion adds a mild, slightly sweet bite that does not overpower the tomatoes. Regular yellow onion is sharper and will change the flavor considerably.
• Jalapeño brings a clean, bright heat. Remove the seeds and membrane for milder heat, or leave a few seeds in if you want it to have some real kick.
• Fresh flat-leaf parsley adds an herby, slightly earthy note that keeps the whole relish tasting fresh and clean. Skip the curly variety here.
• Sugar is just enough to mellow the acid from the vinegar without making this sweet. It balances rather than dominates.
• Red wine vinegar is the quick pickling agent that brings everything together and gives the relish its bright, tangy backbone.
• Salt and pepper tie it all together. Taste and adjust right before serving.

Make It Ahead and Keep It Ready

Refrigerator: Store covered for up to two weeks. Give it a stir before each serving since the liquid settles.

Make it spicier as it sits: The jalapeño heat intensifies over time in the refrigerator. Keep that in mind if you are making it more than a day ahead for a crowd.

Double or triple it: This recipe scales beautifully. Make a big batch at the peak of tomato season and work through it all week.