Tomatillos
Tomatillos run from midsummer into October and are at their best right now — heavy, tight in the husk, and tart in a way that no other ingredient in the basket is. They are also the cheapest sauce you can make from scratch.
How to choose it
- The husk should be tight and papery, not shriveled or loose
- The fruit should fill its husk completely
- Firm, with a slight tackiness underneath — that is normal, rinse it off
- Bright green, not yellowing; yellow means sweeter and duller
- Small ones are usually tarter than large ones
Buy this much: 1 lb. That is one batch of salsa verde, which is about a week's worth.
Inexpensive year-round and especially now. A pound of tomatillos makes more salsa than a jar of it costs.
During the week
- Salsa verde for tacos
- A pot of salsa verde for simmering chicken
- Eggs poached in salsa verde
- Spooned over a rice bowl
On a weekend
As salsa verde, on the table with the chile-rubbed fish.
One thing worth learning
Tomatillos are not unripe tomatoes. They are a different plant, related to the ground cherry, and the sourness is structural rather than a sign that you got there too early. That means you cannot fix a tomatillo by waiting. What you can do is decide how much of that sharpness you want: raw keeps all of it, boiling rounds it off, charring trades some of it for smoke.