This chunky green chili tomato sauce from the singer-songwriter pretty Ronstadtnew book, It feels like home: A song from the border of Sonora (Oct. 4), featuring Anaheim chiles, a key ingredient in Sonoran desert food. “Anaheim chiles are a great cross-border chile, popular throughout southwestern and northern Mexico,” says Ronstadt. “They are about six inches long and not very hot, but they should be tasty, fresh and green or dried and red.” Serve this sauce with carne asada (grilled steak).
And one thing you will never find out Ronstadt’s kitchen? Supermarket dressing. “A lot of people in Tucson cook with the red chili sauce that comes in a jar,” he notes. “They don’t like it.” Using the family recipe featured in Rondstadt’s new memoir, making your own takes a little more effort than store-bought sauce, but it promises to be worth it.
Red chile sauce is the backbone of many dishes in the Sonoran Desert, Ronstadt says, appearing in everything from enchiladas and tamales to beef and pork stew. Along with Mexican oregano (which has brighter citrus notes than the Mediterranean variety), you can find dried chilies in many supermarkets, any Mexican grocery store, and of course online.
It makes a thick, earthy, almost paste-like sauce, and depending on the recipe it’s used for, you can thin it with chicken or beef stock to your desired consistency.
RELATED: Linda Ronstadt speaks out parade In her songs, losing her voice and her new book and album
[Adapted from Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands by Linda Ronstadt and Lawrence Downes, with photographs by Bill Steen © 2022. Excerpted with permission from Heyday.]
Green Chile Tomato Sauce (Green Chile Tomato Sauce)
« The Geek Website. Wishful thinker. Reader. Independent traveling evangelist. Fan of pop culture. Certified Music Scholar.”