I received a lot of products from Marcos Not Yet Famous Salsa at this years Weekend of Fire and have been slowly working my way through them. The product on the review slab today is his Medium Roasted Vegetable Salsa which he has told me that all the vegetables used have been roasted.

Marcos Not Quite Famous Medium Roasted Vegetable Salsa Ingredients: Diced tomatoes, roasted green chilies, cider vinegar, roasted onion, roasted garlic, roasted Red Bell Peppers, roasted Jalapenos, salt, canola oil, orange juice, lime juice, Habanero chilies, sugar, a special blend of herbs.

Wow, what a diverse ingredient list! The salsa is packed with varying sized chunks of ingredients which is quite pleasing to the eyes. After doing a quick taste I’m going to say this is not a salsa. This is a fantastic pasta sauce disguising itself as a salsa. It tastes exactly like a lot of the Italian sauces that I get here in Cleveland (which has a high percentage of fine Italian eateries).

Right up front is the roasted garlic (which I so love) and it lingers for a long time. Nothing says Italy more than roasted garlic. Next is the canola oil which I usually say is a negative, but for a pasta sauce it’s almost essential so no points are marked off for that. Up next are the tomatoes and some of the spices are starting to make their appearance (basil, etc).

Next is the Bell Peppers, Jalapenos, and then the minuscule hint of Habanero. Onion follows that in addition to the slight pull of lime juice. I don’t taste the orange juice and the cider vinegar at all but the salt does come in slightly on the back end and is well incorporated. The heat here is a definite medium with a middle of the tongue burn and a hint of back of the throat Habanero burn.

I was disappointed because I was expecting a salsa and got a pasta sauce instead. But I’ll be damned if this isn’t an amazing pasta sauce!!!! If I had an Italian grandmother (which I don’t, my families German straight down the line), I think I’d do the unthinkable and replace her pasta sauce with Marco’s at family dinners. I think that’s a criminal offense in Italian families, but it’d be worth the risk. Use it for pasta, bread dipping, and spooning it right out of the jar.

Taste: 8, Heat: 4.12