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Morelos triangular masa cakes from the markets of Tepoztlán, comal-baked and split open like a pita, stuffed with Yecapixtla cecina, queso fresco, crema, and salsa verde cruda.
Itacates are from Morelos. Specifically from Tepoztlán, the pueblo magico at the foot of the Tepozteco, where the Wednesday and Sunday market builds itself around the women shaping these thick triangles of masa and laying them on the comal. You will not find a proper itacate in Mexico City and you will certainly not find one outside Morelos. This is a regional snack, anchored to one place, and that is the whole point.
The shape matters. An itacate is a triangle, fat through the middle, half an inch thick or more, built so it can be split open down one side and stuffed like a pocket. Anyone who hands you a flat round and calls it an itacate has handed you a thick tortilla. The triangle is not decorative. It is structural. The corners hold the heat in while the center cooks, and the geometry gives you three edges to slice into. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and Morelos drew this one with a knife.
The classic filling in Tepoztlán is cecina enchilada from Yecapixtla, the other Morelos town that has built its reputation on a single product. Cecina is thin-sliced beef, salt-cured and chile-rubbed, sold by weight at storefronts that have done nothing else for generations. Queso fresco from the Morelos ranches, crema, salsa verde cruda made with chile serrano and tomatillo, raw white onion, cilantro. No flour tortillas. No yellow cheese. No sour cream. Those belong somewhere else.
My mother and I went to Tepoztlán together one Sunday in October, the year before she died. We climbed halfway up the Tepozteco and came back down hungry. The first thing she bought at the market was an itacate stuffed with cecina, wrapped in brown paper, eaten standing up. She wrote two lines in her notebook that evening: 'masa gorda, triangular, queso fresco de Morelos, cecina de Yecapixtla, salsa verde cruda. No me vengas con atajos.' That is the whole recipe. Everything else is execution. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
The word 'itacate' derives from the Nahuatl 'itacatl,' meaning provisions or food packed for a journey, and originally referred to the bundle of food a host would send home with a guest after a meal, a practice still alive in Morelos and central Mexico today. The Tepoztlán market version, a thick triangular masa cake split and stuffed, codified in the 19th and 20th centuries as a market-day snack tied to the agricultural calendar of the Valle de Morelos, where corn, beans, and dairy from the surrounding ranches converged at the tianguis. The pairing with Yecapixtla cecina reflects a specifically morelense trade circuit: the cecina town and the itacate town lie within a short distance of each other, and their products have been eaten together at Sunday markets for at least four generations.
Quantity
2 cups
Maseca works; fresh masa from a tortilleria is better
Quantity
1 1/2 cups
plus more as needed
Quantity
3 tablespoons
at room temperature
Quantity
1 teaspoon
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
Quantity
1/2 pound
chile-rubbed cured beef, sliced thin
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Quantity
1 cup
crumbled
Quantity
1/2 cup
Quantity
1 cup
tomatillo, chile serrano, cilantro, white onion, salt
Quantity
1/2 small
finely diced
Quantity
1/4 cup
chopped
Quantity
1
sliced
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| masa harina for tortillas (or fresh masa)Maseca works; fresh masa from a tortilleria is better | 2 cups |
| warm waterplus more as needed | 1 1/2 cups |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard)at room temperature | 3 tablespoons |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon |
| baking powder | 1/2 teaspoon |
| cecina enchilada from Yecapixtlachile-rubbed cured beef, sliced thin | 1/2 pound |
| manteca de cerdo for the comal | 1 tablespoon |
| queso fresco or queso de rancho from Moreloscrumbled | 1 cup |
| crema mexicana | 1/2 cup |
| salsa verde crudatomatillo, chile serrano, cilantro, white onion, salt | 1 cup |
| white onion (optional)finely diced | 1/2 small |
| fresh cilantro (optional)chopped | 1/4 cup |
| ripe avocado (optional)sliced | 1 |
| lime wedges (optional) | for serving |
If you are starting from masa harina, combine the masa harina, salt, and baking powder in a wide bowl. Add the lard and rub it into the dry masa with your fingertips until it looks like wet sand. Pour in the warm water and knead with your hands for three to four minutes. You want a dough that holds together when pressed but does not crack at the edges. If it cracks, add water a tablespoon at a time. If it sticks to your palm like glue, add a little more masa harina. The lard is not optional. La manteca es el sabor and it is also what gives the itacate its tender crumb.
Cover the masa with a damp cotton cloth and let it rest for fifteen minutes. This is not a step you can skip. Resting hydrates the corn evenly and the dough becomes easier to shape. A dry masa cracks the moment you try to form a triangle and an itacate that cracks before it hits the comal will fall apart on the comal.
Divide the masa into eight equal portions, about the size of a small lime each. Roll each one into a ball between your palms, then flatten it into a thick disc about half an inch thick. Now pinch three corners of the disc to form a triangle, like a samosa from above but solid. The itacate is not a tortilla. It is fat. It is triangular. It is built to be split open and stuffed. The thickness is the point. A thin itacate is just a malformed tortilla. Así se hace y punto.
Heat a cast iron comal or heavy skillet over medium heat. Rub a small amount of lard across the surface with a folded cloth. Lay the triangles on the comal and cook for four to five minutes per side, turning once. They should develop dark golden spots and a few char marks. The outside firms into a thin crust while the inside stays soft and almost steamed within its own thickness. Press lightly with a spatula in the last minute to check, the itacate should feel firm at the edges and give slightly at the center.
While the itacates finish on the comal, lay the cecina enchilada flat on a hot surface of the same comal or in a separate skillet over medium-high heat. Thirty seconds per side is all it needs. The chile rub on the outside will darken and the meat will firm but stay tender. Cecina is already cured and seasoned. You are warming it, not cooking it. Overcook cecina and it goes to leather.
Pull the itacates off the comal. Using a small knife, cut each triangle along one long edge, opening it into a pocket like a pita. Be careful, the inside steam is hot. Tear or chop the warm cecina into pieces and tuck into each pocket. Add a generous spoonful of crumbled queso fresco, a drizzle of crema, and a spoon of salsa verde cruda. Finish with diced white onion, cilantro, and a slice of avocado if you like.
Itacates are eaten the moment they are stuffed. The masa goes from tender to dense as it sits. Set them out on a clay plate with extra salsa verde, more lime, and a cold agua fresca. In Tepoztlán the vendors hand them to you wrapped in a square of brown paper and you eat them standing up at the market. That is the right way. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
1 serving (about 205g)
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