Gorditas de Migajas Queretanas

Querétaro, the Bajío queretano, puts this gordita in the markets of Santiago de Querétaro before it puts it on any restaurant menu. At Mercado Escobedo, the women at the comal know the weight of the masa by hand: thick enough to hold migajas, thin enough to cook through before the outside turns hard.

The migajas are not bread crumbs. In Querétaro, they are the crisp, salty scraps from the carnitas cazo, the browned pieces left after pork has cooked in manteca until the fat gives back flavor. Fold those into fresh nixtamal masa and you have a dish that tells the truth about household economy: nothing from the cazo is waste if a good cook is working.

Use fresh masa if you can. The gordita should crack just a little at the edge when pressed, then seal around the filling without splitting. The salsa is chile de árbol and serrano with jitomate, blunt and bright, not a contest of heat. The nopales get epazote because Querétaro is still central Mexico and the herb belongs there.

I learned this version watching a señora near the Mercado Escobedo stalls open fried gorditas with a small knife and pack in nopalitos like she was closing a purse. She didn't measure. She watched the masa. You will measure until your hands learn. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.