Anyone who knows my husband knows that there is nothing he loves more than Apple products, running marathons and Mexican food. Well, and me, I hope. I’m just not sure where I fall among this list…but I’m confident it’s towards the top.

He loves Mexican food so much that I’m convinced he was initially attracted to me because he thought I was indeed a full-blown mamacita.

Matt wouldn’t have been the only one. Sarah, my best friend and maid of honor, admitted in her maid of honor speech that right after we met at freshman orientation, she ran to up to mom and told her: “I just met the cutest Mexican girl!”

The entire wedding reception flooded with laughter and nodding heads, (except for Mama, my 92 -year-old “hard of hearing” grandmother, who smiled but then said, ‘Who’d she say is Mexican?”) proving that my dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin have been mistaken for pretty much every ethnicity out there. But out of all of them, I guess the Mexican/Spanish/Puerto Rican guesstimate was the most popular. Especially when I cut my hair to my chin, wore a pink backpack and bounced around campus – earning my beloved “Dora” nickname.

Or when I accidentally hit the “Espanol” button at the loudest CVS self-checkout machine in front of the longest line in the history of CVS. Swiper, no swiping!

Anyways, while I know that I have 100 percent Sicilian blood running through my veins, I had to prove to Matt that I could make his favorite Mexican food just as well as meatballs, chicken parm, lasagna and 28 variations of Italian cookies. OH MY GOSHHHH Italian cookies…just wait until they take over this blog around Christmas time!

But out of all the tacos, burritos, enchiladas that I’ve attempted, Matt has praised nothing higher than this salsa. He puts it on everything – from eggs to turkey sandwiches to veggie burgers to chicken wraps to straight up eating it by the spoonful. It honestly is out-of-this-world delicious, and comes together in under five minutes. It also yields about 10-12 cups of salsa, so I can easily appease Matt’s never-ending Mexican food cravings for at least a week at a time. And seriously, who are we kidding – mine, too.

I give all the credit for this recipe to Amy, Matt’s sister, for including it in the beautiful cookbook she created for my bridal shower. Everyone who was invited was asked to give their favorite recipes, and Amy not only made little recipe books as favors for everyone but then compiled all recipes, along with photos from the shower, wedding and engagement into this gorgeous “Family Favorites” cookbook!

So gorgeous that I almost cried when I spilled a bit of this salsa on its recipe page while I was whipping it together for the second time this month (and yes, it is March 8). But then I figured it will make it that much more meaningful & authentic when I pass it along to our Mexican, er, Italian children.

Queen of the Night Salsa

Ingredients:

• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• 1 purple onion, chopped
• 2 15-ounce cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 17-ounce can of corn, drained
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

1) Combine all ingredients in bowl. Stir well, cover and chill before serving.

Or in my case, pry the bowl out of the hands of your hungry husband just in time to salvage at least half of the recipe to cover and chill. Go, Diego, Go!