Really good pico de gallo starts with tomatoes and peppers grown in my small, 8×8 backyard garden. It doesn’t get much fresher than feeling the warmth of the sun still trapped inside the tomato as I dice it up by hand.
Really good pico de gallo takes a bit of pain to make. The acid from the limes and tomatoes eats away at my fingertips. The salt puckers my tongue. The onion makes me cry. And the jalapeno pepper oil sizzles in my eye after I wipe away an onion tear.
But to me, it’s worth the pain.
To me, the layers of flavor that dance in my mouth are nothing short of concentrated summertime.
And all of this is why, to me, really good pico de gallo is one of the culinary highlights of the year.