Fresh pineapple is available all year through, although it peaks from March to July. This lets you make a fresh pineapple salsa whenever you crave it.
There are some basic tips for choosing a ripe pineapple. It is more than looking for the best color or pulling out the innermost spikes on top to indicate ripeness. And contrary to popular belief, pineapples don’t continue to ripen after being removed from the plant. They will soften and so seem to ripen, but no conversion of sugars occurs.
Tips for Choosing a Ripe Pineapple
- Smell the cut bottom for the sweet scent of pineapple, which is the easiest indicator of ripeness. If it smells fermented, the fruit is overripe.
- Squeeze the fruit (all over) it should give just slightly, but have no soft squishy spots.
- Choose a heavy fruit. This indicates the pineapple has not lost liquid from age.
- Look for green fresh top fronds without dry or brittle edges.
- Ripe pineapples can be green, or yellow graduating to green. Mostly orange-colored fruit is more likely to be a sign of overripeness.
- If the cut looks brown and dry, that indicates the fruit is old.
How to cut a pineapple
- Lay the pineapple on its side and cut off the crown and the bottom.
- Stand the fruit up and using a chef’s knife, cut a 2” wide strip from the side of the pineapple. (I usually take off enough to remove the brown eyes as well as the skin, it wastes some fruit but more than makes up for it in time.)
- Rotate the fruit, and repeat until there is no more skin.
- Looking at the center core, cut off the fruit on one side of the pineapple. Repeat on the other side.
- Lay the core with the fruit wings flat on the cutting board and remove the fruit from the core.
- Cut the fruit into the desired size pieces.
Fresh Pineapple Salsa
- Yield: 5 cups 1x
- Category: appetizer
- Method: fresh
- Cuisine: Tex-Mex
Description
An easy fruit salsa that comes together in a flash. Sweet and tangy with just a hint of heat. Great with fish tacos or just as an alternative to traditional tomato salsa.
Ingredients
- 1 pineapple, peeled and diced into 1/4” pieces (4 cups small dice)
- 1 red onion, diced into 1/4” pieces (1–1/2 cups small dice)
- 1 jalapeño, remove seeds and membrane, cut into small dice
- 1/2 bunch cilantro, minced (1/2 cup)
- Zest of 1 lime
- 1 teaspoon lime juice
- 1 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Remove skin and core of the pineapple. Cut fruit into 1/4” pieces.
- Peel and dice onion, dice jalapeño (or seed and remove membrane before mincing to reduce the heat of the salsa).
- Wash and remove the long stems from the cilantro, then mince.
- Combine fruit, red onion, and cilantro in a medium bowl.
- Zest the lime and add and then juice the lime and add to the onion, jalapeño and cilantro mixture.
- Add the lime juice, salt and pepper and stir to combine.
- Serve with tortilla chips or as an accompaniment to a Tex-Mex meal.
Notes
You can substitute 1 cup of the pineapple with an equal amount of diced mango, peach or nectarine. This salsa is best on the same day it is made. Drain off the excess liquid if serving after 8 hours.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/3 cup
Love the tips for choosing a fresh pineapple. Can you please tell me how to make fish tacos?
I’ll be posting my favorite fish taco recipe a little later, stay tuned.