Salsa Picante de Don Justo

Food in Cuba’s western provinces, like Spanish food, is well seasoned but almost never hot and spicy. Cachuchas, the hottest chiles found at farmers markets in Havana, resemble the fiery habaneros and Scotch bonnets popular on other Caribbean islands, but are surprisingly mild.

Don Justo, who has traveled the world as a ship’s cook, grew up in Oriente, Cuba’s easternmost province, where there is more Jamaican, Haitian, and Dominican influence in the cooking. At his small neig