All ingredients are approximate. Use more or less depending on your taste. The flavor depends on everything being as ripe as possible, especially the tomatoes.

1. Chop tomatoes (or pulse in a food processor). The goal is to leave some texture but not large lumps. Drain in a strainer while you work on the other ingredients. Get the chopped tomatoes as dry as you can.

2. Chop the onion (or use a food processor). Let stand in a bowl with cold water while you work on the other ingredients. The water removes the edge from the onion flavor.

3. Remove the seeds from the bell pepper(s) and jalapenos. Chop (or pulse in a food processor).

4. Cut off and discard the bulk of the stems from the cilentro. Chop the leaves (or pulse in a food processor).

5. Crush and/or chop the garlic. Put the garlic into a mortar, add the salt (large grain salt like kosher works best). Crush with the pestle until you get a good garlic/salt mush. Add the olive oil and incorporate it into the garlic mash.

6. Move the chopped tomatoes to a large bowl. Drain the chopped onions (getting them as dry as you can) and add to the bowl. Add the chopped peppers and jalapenos. Add the chopped cilentro. Add the garlic/salt/olive oil mixture. Squeeze in the juice of the lime(s). Add the rice wine vinegar. Stir this all together until well mixed. Serve with basic tortilla chips.