versatility

I like making things that have multiple uses - that way once you learn one recipe you can use it in many different ways.  This weekend I made tomatillo sauce to use in a  mexican type lasagna.  The tomatillo sauce is my go-to green sauce to use whenever I make enchiladas or need a quick different salsa.  It's cheap, easy to make ahead, and freezes well - all good things in my book.  In this recipe I call for one jalapeño with the seeds and ribs removed, but use more or less depending on how spicy you like your food.

Roasted Tomatillo Sauce
2 lbs tomatillos, husks removed, washed and either cut in half or quartered depending on size
1 jalapeño, cut in half and seeds removed
4 cloves garlic
1 medium sized onion, peeled and quartered
2 limes, cut in half
1/2 bunch cilantro

Directions
Heat the oven to 425 degrees
Place the tomatillos, jalapeño, garlic, onion, and two lime halves on a roasting sheet.  Toss everything with olive oil, salt and pepper
Roast until the tomatillos start to break down and the vegetables start to caramelize, about half an hour depending on your oven.

Let all the veggies cool.  Place all the veggies in a blender or food processor.  It will look like this:

Squeeze the roasted lime into the blender.  Squeeze the fresh lime into the blender and add the cilantro in there as well.  Puree everything until completely mixed together and the sauce is somewhat smooth (note - if you are planning on using this as a salsa you can mix it to however chunky you want the salsa - if you're using it as a sauce puree it completely).  Taste for salt and pepper and add as necessary. If using as salsa cool completely and then serve with chips- if using as a sauce either cool or use warm.

A note about spiciness...when I made this sauce this weekend I accidentally made it WAY too spicy (unfortunately this was not my first time messing up and making something incredibly spicy by accident).  I initially added one whole jalapeño and one seeded jalapeño to the sauce. It was ridiculously spicy.   If you make thves sauce too spicy, all you need to do is add more ingredients to bulk up the sauce. If you have extra tomatillos, cut them up and put them in the blender, adding enough until the spice level is what you want.  I didn't have any extra tomatillos, so I used a few cut up roma tomatoes and added some extra lime juice to tone down the heat. A smarter person would start with a little heat and then add more if necessary since that's much easier, but that's not always me....