Pico de Gallo, Chimichurri and Pickled Onions: Latin American Table Sauces
Latin American cooking is often about contrast: rich, slow-cooked or grilled meat, finished at the table with something fresh, sharp or acidic. These three toppings do that job, and none of them takes more than fifteen minutes.
What these three share is acid. Lime, vinegar and sour orange are used generously across Latin American cooking, because they cut through fatty meat and make everything taste brighter. If a plate of food feels heavy, the answer is usually a squeeze of citrus or a spoonful of something pickled.
Pico de gallo is Mexico's everyday table salsa: diced tomato, white onion, fresh chilli, coriander and lime juice. It is chunky rather than blended, and it should be eaten the day you make it.
It goes on tacos, fajitas and quesadillas, and it is the right thing to put on the table for a plate of chilaquiles.
Pickled red onions are the topping of the Yucatán peninsula. They turn bright pink within half an hour, and their sharp, slightly sweet bite is just right with cochinita pibil, the slow-roasted pork of the region.
Further south, in Argentina, chimichurri plays the same role for grilled meat. Parsley, garlic, oregano and vinegar are chopped together with oil into a loose green sauce. It goes on steak, sausages and the Argentine street sandwich, choripán.
All three are best made ahead. Pickled onions and chimichurri improve overnight, and pico de gallo should be made close to serving time.
They are also forgiving. Use ripe tomatoes for pico de gallo and the rest will take care of itself. Use the freshest parsley you can find for chimichurri, and chop it by hand. Slice the red onions as thinly as you can for pickling, and they will soften in minutes.
Put all three on the table with grilled meat and warm tortillas and you have a meal with almost no cooking at all.