Nancy Beckham's Salsa Creole Cruda
Nancy Beckham's Spicy Avocado Salsa
Michael Bomberg's Cucumber-Tahini Salsa
Michael Bomberg's Pineapple-Green Peppercorn Salsa
Robert Del Grande's Roasted-Tomato Salsa
Seis Salsas' Salsa Brava

"For me, salsa is hot-weather food," says chef Nancy Beckham, who has created a naturally sweet, tropical interpretation of the traditional Mexican tomato-and-chile sauce for her restaurant, Brazos, in Dallas. "I remember my grandmother's house in the summer -- she never turned the oven on," says Beckham. "Everything was raw or cooked as little as possible. Salsa is cooling because the flavors are so fresh. It has always been popular in Texas; we're just seeing it used differently." There are so many new variations of salsa on Southwestern menus, partly because today's young chefs don't confine their cooking to the boundaries of a map. They are exploring the lesser-known cuisines of Indonesia, the Caribbean, and Mexico and discovering vivid flavors that depend as much on freshness as on technique. Fiery, forthright salsa is one of the most versatile of their borrowings. No longer just served with chips as a prelude to a Tex-Mex meal, salsas are at center stage, bold accents for foods -- grilled meat or fish -- with flavors too intense for standard accompaniments.

The word "salsa" translates from Spanish as "sauce," but that's not quite accurate. Less than a sauce and more than a garnish, salsa falls in the middle. Recipes vary from region to region and from cook to cook. There are fresh salsas, cooked salsas, red ones and green ones. Some are a smooth purèe, others a casual mixture of coarsely chopped vegetables. The classic Mexican table sauce, salsa cruda is a combination of fresh tomatoes, onions, chiles, cilantro, and water. The Sinaloa version calls for scallions and lime juice instead of onions and water, and in the Yucat·n, orange juice is used instead of water.