Technique Tip: To brighten the dish in late summer, substitute small yellow tomatoes for a couple of the reds, or mix red and green jalapeños.

The term pico de gallo is a linguistic mystery, which is probably the real reason we prefer it as a name. Literally, it means “rooster’s beak,” a translation that makes little metaphorical sense. The most common explanations claim that the chiles in the salsa resemble bird beaks or that the mixture is chopped almost as fine as chicken feed.