Salsa roja is the Mexican salsa named for its red color and usually made with cooked tomatoes.
The Spanish word roja means “red,” so the name describes the sauce’s appearance rather than a single fixed recipe. In Mexican cooking, salsa roja commonly combines tomatoes with onion, garlic and one or more chiles. The ingredients may be boiled, roasted or fried before blending, producing sauces that range from smooth and pourable to chunky and rustic.
Cooking the tomatoes softens their texture and develops a sweeter, deeper flavor. Chiles determine much of the heat and can include varieties such as jalapeño, serrano, árbol or dried red chiles, depending on the regional recipe. Because salsa roja is a broad family of sauces, there is no universal ingredient list.
Salsa roja is often contrasted with salsa verde, whose characteristic base is tomatillo. Mole poblano is a more complex cooked sauce containing ingredients such as chiles, spices, nuts or seeds and often chocolate. Salsa macha is typically an oil-based chile-and-nut or seed sauce, so neither is the answer here.