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Tlaxcala's hand-pinched masa cakes, slicked with manteca and asiento, topped with frijoles, queso anejo, and salsa. The older sister of the sope, and one of the proudest snacks of central Mexico.
Pellizcadas are from Tlaxcala. The smallest state in Mexico, often forgotten by people who can only name Oaxaca and Puebla, but a state with a deep masa tradition that predates the conquest. This is the snack of the markets in Apizaco, of Sunday lunches in Huamantla, of the women who set up comales on the sidewalk and pinch these by hand for school children walking home in the afternoon.
The name comes from pellizcar, to pinch. After the masa cake cooks on the comal, you pinch the edges up while it is still hot to form a small lip that holds the toppings. Without that pinch, you have a sope, which is from somewhere else and shaped by hand differently. With the pinch, you have a pellizcada, and you have Tlaxcala on your plate. Esto no es comida de un solo Mexico.
The fat is what separates this dish from imitations. Asiento, the dark, savory residue from the bottom of a carnitas pot, is smeared onto the hot masa right after it comes off the comal. It is briny, smoky, almost anchovy-like in how it deepens flavor. If you cannot find asiento, use good lard, and know that you are making a compromise. La manteca es el sabor and in Tlaxcala that is not negotiable.
My mother did not make pellizcadas. She was from Jalisco and she made sopes. But I learned these in 2011, in a market stall in Huamantla, from a woman named Dona Reyna who had been pinching them on the same comal for forty-one years. She told me the pinch is what makes the dish. The pinch is what your fingers remember after the recipe is gone. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Pellizcadas belong to a family of pre-Columbian masa antojitos that includes sopes, huaraches, tlacoyos, and gorditas, regional variations on the same idea of a thick masa base topped with beans, salsa, and cheese. In Tlaxcala specifically, the pinched-edge technique is documented in ethnographic accounts of indigenous Nahua and Otomi cooking from the central highlands, where the corn-based snack economy operated almost entirely through women working domestic comales for daily market sale. The use of asiento, the rendered residue from carnitas production, ties the dish to the post-conquest introduction of pork and reflects the economic logic of small Tlaxcaltecan kitchens, in which nothing from a single pig was wasted, and the brown bits at the bottom of the lard pot became a flavor base in their own right.
Quantity
2 cups masa harina, or 1 pound fresh masa
Quantity
1 1/4 cups
only if using masa harina
Quantity
1 teaspoon
Quantity
1/3 cup
the brown bits scraped from the bottom of the carnitas pot; substitute pork lard if you must
Quantity
3 tablespoons, plus more for the comal
Quantity
1 1/2 cups
recipe below
Quantity
1 cup
crumbled; queso fresco is a fair substitute
Quantity
1 cup
warmed
Quantity
1/2 cup
finely diced
Quantity
1/2 cup
chopped
Quantity
1 cup
with a little of their cooking broth
Quantity
2 tablespoons
Quantity
1/4
finely chopped
Quantity
1 sprig
Quantity
to taste
Quantity
4
stemmed and seeded
Quantity
2
stemmed
Quantity
3 medium
roasted on a comal
Quantity
2
roasted on a comal
Quantity
1/4 small
roasted on a comal
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| masa harina (Maseca or Minsa) or fresh nixtamal masa | 2 cups masa harina, or 1 pound fresh masa |
| warm wateronly if using masa harina | 1 1/4 cups |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon |
| asientothe brown bits scraped from the bottom of the carnitas pot; substitute pork lard if you must | 1/3 cup |
| pork lard (manteca de cerdo) | 3 tablespoons, plus more for the comal |
| frijoles refritosrecipe below | 1 1/2 cups |
| queso anejo or queso de ranchocrumbled; queso fresco is a fair substitute | 1 cup |
| salsa roja or salsa verdewarmed | 1 cup |
| raw white onionfinely diced | 1/2 cup |
| fresh cilantrochopped | 1/2 cup |
| cooked frijoles bayos or pinto beanswith a little of their cooking broth | 1 cup |
| pork lard for the beans | 2 tablespoons |
| small white onion for the beansfinely chopped | 1/4 |
| epazote | 1 sprig |
| kosher salt for the beans | to taste |
| dried chile guajillo (optional)stemmed and seeded | 4 |
| dried chile de arbol (optional)stemmed | 2 |
| tomates for salsa (optional)roasted on a comal | 3 medium |
| garlic cloves for salsa (optional)roasted on a comal | 2 |
| white onion for salsa (optional)roasted on a comal | 1/4 small |
| kosher salt for salsa (optional) | to taste |
If you are working with masa harina, combine it in a bowl with the salt and the warm water. Knead with your hands for three to four minutes until the dough is smooth, soft, and holds together without cracking when you press it between your palms. It should feel like the earlobe of a sleeping child, that is what the senoras in Huamantla say. If it cracks, add water a teaspoon at a time. If it sticks, add a little more masa. Cover with a damp cloth and rest for 15 minutes. If you have fresh nixtamal masa from a tortilleria, skip the water and just knead in the salt.
While the masa rests, make the frijoles refritos. Heat the lard in a skillet over medium. Add the chopped white onion and cook until soft and translucent, about three minutes. Add the cooked beans with a splash of their broth and the sprig of epazote. Mash with a bean masher or the back of a wooden spoon until the beans are mostly smooth but still have some texture. Season with salt. They should be thick enough to hold their shape on a spoon but soft enough to spread. Remove the epazote stem before using.
Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the guajillo and chile de arbol for 20 to 30 seconds per side until they puff and smell like the chile vendor's stall at the Tlaxcala mercado. Soak them in hot tap water, not boiling, for 15 minutes. While they soak, roast the tomates, garlic, and onion on the same comal, turning until the tomato skins blister and char and the garlic softens inside its papery skin. Drain the chiles and blend with the roasted vegetables, a pinch of salt, and a couple tablespoons of fresh water until smooth. Taste for salt. Warm gently in a small pot before serving.
Divide the masa into 12 equal balls, about the size of a golf ball. Line a tortilla press with two pieces of plastic cut from a freezer bag. Place a ball in the center, close the press, and flatten to about a quarter inch thick, thicker than a tortilla. The pellizcada should be slightly heftier, four inches across. If you do not have a press, flatten between two flat plates or two pieces of plastic with the bottom of a heavy pan.
Heat a dry comal over medium-high until a drop of water dances and evaporates on contact. Lay the pressed masa rounds on the comal in batches. Cook for about a minute and a half on the first side, until the edges look dry and the underside is freckled with light brown spots. Flip and cook for another minute and a half. Flip once more for 30 seconds. They should be cooked through but still pliable, not crisp.
This is where the dish gets its name. Pellizcar means to pinch. Pull one cooked round off the comal and immediately, while it is still hot enough to burn your fingertips a little, pinch the edges up all the way around to form a small lip, the way you would pinch the crust of a pie. Use a clean kitchen towel to protect your fingers if you must, but most of the senoras in Tlaxcala do this with bare hands. The pinched border holds the toppings in place. Without the pinch, you have a sope. With it, you have a pellizcada.
Return the pinched pellizcadas to the warm comal. Smear the inside of each one with a generous half teaspoon of asiento and a small dab of lard. The fat melts into the masa surface and gives it the savory backbone that makes this dish a Tlaxcaltecan one. La manteca es el sabor. Asiento is what makes a pellizcada different from any old fried masa cake from another state, do not skip it if you can get your hands on the real thing.
Spread a tablespoon of warm frijoles refritos across each pellizcada, staying inside the pinched border. Spoon over a tablespoon of warm salsa roja or salsa verde, your choice. Top with a generous scatter of crumbled queso anejo, raw white onion, and chopped cilantro. Serve directly off the comal onto a clay plate. Pellizcadas wait for nobody. Eat them as soon as they are dressed, while the masa is still soft and the fat is still hot. Asi se hace y punto.
1 serving (about 300g)
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