Smoked Salmon Salsa

Part of the fun of this blog for me is looking for recipes I never would have imagined in my life. Moose bologna. Beef pancake pie. Hell balls. Odd ingredients, strange transformation, head scratchers, they're all good for a laugh and a lark. Better, though, are the recipes that take ingredients I love and combine them for presentations and uses I'd never thought of, like this recipe from The Great Salsa Book:

Smoked Salmon Salsa

4 ounces smoked salmon, finely diced
3 tablespoons finely diced sun-dried tomatoes (in oil)
3/4 cup finely diced fennel bulb
3 tablespoons chopped fennel tops
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder

Thoroughly combine all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

Serving suggestions: On top of eggs, as a soup garnish (for tomato soup in particular), or with pasta.
Yield: About 1 3/4 cups.
Heat: 3-4.

So simple! So... well, so obvious, once someone says it the first time... why wouldn't you make a salsa with these ingredients?

I can totally see this, with tomato soup, at an elegant brunch or tea. A thick tomato soup would hold up a nice mound of this, and it would add so much, visually and taste-wise. And, yes, toss what ever is left over in with some pasta for dinner after you clean up. Mmmm. Champagne with both!

I would use a dry-smoked salmon, not a wet-cured. So, no lox, folks. My Oregonian roots are showing when I say this: Try your darnedest to get alder-smoked fish; the smokiness will play nicely with the sun-dried tomatoes and fennel.