This simple salsa trades on some truly fabulous ingredients.
The linchpin here is the ramp, a wild onion which is only available for a few weeks in the spring. I haven’t worked much with ramps yet, but it’s pretty clear that they live up to the hype. I suspect that there may also be some more experienced culinary traditions that really do extraordinary things with this wild-type flavor.
But what inspired this recipe was my realization that this year’s ramp crop also coincides with the availability of cheap and really good Ataúlfo mangos. I’m not a huge mango consumer. If you live in Wisconsin and care much about food miles, they’re a special treat. This just happens to be the time of year to indulge, and this year’s crop is especially affordable and good.
In possession of mangoes I was already planning on salsa, then the ramps sparked experimentation mode. I pulled up the Savory Mango Daikon Salsa here, but in the process of building it up quickly realized these ingredients were so special that, in the end, only a very few ingredients were called for.
The pomegranate molasses brings it all together. (Pomegranate sauce works too.)
INGREDIENTS
- 2 Ataúlfo mango, cut in small cubes
- 1/2 cup red onion, diced finely
- 1 bunch ramps
- 2-4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
INSTRUCTIONS
1Finely chop the red onion, then the ramps, including the leaves. (Make sure they are thoroughly cleaned.) Place in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of lime juice and the salt and mix.
2Peel and dice the mango. You don’t want it as fine as the onion, but you don’t want the mango too chunky either. Add to the bowl with the pomegranate molasses and mix again. Taste, and adjust lime as desired. (Mangos and limes both vary naturally in sweetness, so you’re doing a little dance here between acid and sweet. If the mangoes aren’t quite sweet enough, sprinkle a very small amount of sugar—the second batch I made had a tangier mango, but an eighth of a teaspoon of sugar tipped the balance.)
3Serve in a bowl that brings out the fabulous colors.
Serving suggestion: Fish Tacos
