Gordon Ramsay’s tomato salsa is 250g of ripe plum tomatoes halved into a bowl with spring onions, coriander, lemon juice and a dash of Tabasco. Then comes his twist: a tablespoon of sesame oil alongside the olive oil. Five minutes, no cooking, and it’s ready before the rest of dinner.
It comes from Healthy Appetite, where it’s piled on top of his sweet potato frittata, and the sesame oil is the detail that tells you this is actually his. Every generic salsa runs tomato, onion, lime, coriander. His swaps lime for lemon and adds a nutty, toasted depth that makes people ask what’s in it.
The technique is restraint. The tomatoes are halved or quartered, never chopped fine, so the salsa stays chunky and the juices stay inside the fruit instead of pooling in the bowl. Everything gets mixed gently and set aside, and the sugar is optional: taste your tomatoes first, ripe ones won’t need it.
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Gordon Ramsay Tomato Salsa (Fresh, With Sesame Oil)
Course: AppetizerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy2
10
minutes10
minutes260
kcal20
minutesThe fresh salsa from Healthy Appetite, built to sit on his sweet potato frittata: chunky ripe plum tomatoes with spring onions, coriander, lemon and Tabasco, finished with his signature tablespoon of sesame oil. The kind of side that improves whatever it lands on.
Ingredients
250g vine-ripened plum tomatoes
2 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced on the diagonal
Handful of coriander leaves, chopped
Juice of ½ lemon
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp sesame oil
Dash of Tabasco sauce
Pinch of sugar (optional)
Sea salt and black pepper
Directions
- Cut the tomatoes chunky: Halve or quarter the tomatoes depending on size and place them in a large bowl. Keep the pieces big, this salsa is about texture.
- Add everything else: Add the spring onions, coriander, lemon juice, both oils and the Tabasco to the bowl.
- Mix and season: Mix gently and season to taste with salt and pepper, adding the pinch of sugar only if your tomatoes need the help.
- Let it settle: Set aside for 10 minutes before serving so the lemon and Tabasco work into the tomatoes. Serve the same day.
FAQs
Why does Gordon Ramsay put sesame oil in salsa?
Because it adds a toasted, nutty depth that olive oil alone can’t reach, and it’s the single ingredient that separates his salsa from every standard recipe. One tablespoon against three of olive oil is enough to register without turning the salsa into a stir-fry dressing.
It pairs with the Tabasco and lemon the way sesame pairs with chilli and citrus across Asian cooking. If you’ve only got plain salsa ingredients in the house, it still works, but the sesame is the part people remember.
What does he serve it with in the book?
His sweet potato frittata: cubed sweet potato and shallot fried until golden, eggs and chives poured over, set low on the hob and finished under a hot grill, then inverted onto a plate with the salsa piled on top. The cool, sharp salsa against the warm, sweet eggs is the whole point of the dish.
Beyond the book, it does everything a fresh salsa does: grilled fish, chicken, steak tacos, or spooned next to his scrambled eggs with smoked salmon for a brunch spread that covers both rich and fresh.
What tomatoes should you use?
Vine-ripened plum tomatoes, which is the book’s own call. Plum varieties carry more flesh and less water than round salad tomatoes, so the chunky pieces hold their shape instead of collapsing into juice. Ripeness matters more than variety: a ripe round tomato beats a hard plum one.
If your tomatoes are pale and watery, they’re better cooked than raw: that’s a job for his tomato soup, where sad tomatoes go to become great. Save the salsa for tomatoes that smell like tomatoes.
How is this different from his salsa verde?
Completely different sauce wearing the same surname. His salsa verde is an Italian herb sauce: parsley, basil and mint blitzed with anchovies, capers and Dijon, made for rich meat and oily fish. This is a fresh Mexican-style tomato salsa: chunky, raw, citrusy, made for eggs, tacos and grilled things.
The quick rule: salsa verde when the food is rich and needs cutting, tomato salsa when the food is plain and needs lifting.
Does he have other salsas?
Yes, a mango salsa, served two ways. In Sunday Lunch it goes inside crab wraps as a starter, and in his curry recipes it cools down his pork neck curry, where the sweet mango plays against the heat. Same logic as this one: fresh, sharp fruit against something rich or spicy.
The pattern across all of them is no cooking and big pieces. He treats salsa as a knife skill, not a recipe.
How long does it keep?
Hours, not days, and that’s not a flaw. The salt and lemon start pulling juice out of the tomatoes the moment they meet, so after half a day in the fridge you’ve got salsa soup with chunks. Make it within a couple of hours of eating, and give it just the 10-minute rest.
If you’ve got leftovers anyway, drain them and fold into scrambled eggs or stir through warm rice the next day. The flavour survives even when the texture doesn’t.
