Chef Lupita
Salsa de Cuajada del Istmo
From Juchitan in the Istmo de Tehuantepec: fresh cuajada folded with sun-dried chile pasado and coarse salt, ground on the metate and spread on the great toasted corn discs the Zapotec call totopos del Istmo.
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Recipes
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Gusanos de Maguey
Oaxaca's smoky salsa of toasted gusanos de maguey ground in the molcajete with chile pasilla oaxaqueño, charred garlic, and lime. The umami partner that makes mezcal taste like home.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Jitomate y Jalapeño para Enchiladas Potosinas
San Luis Potosí's weeknight salsa of ripe jitomate guaje and fresh jalapeño, cooked down in manteca until glossy enough to crown the red masa of enchiladas potosinas.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de los Piltes con Hoja Santa
The Papaloapan basin's working salsa, charred tomato, ancho, and guajillo cooked down with hoja santa and fried in lard, the sauce that goes inside piltes wrapped in banana leaf and steamed until the kitchen smells like the river.
Chef Lupita
Chiapas Hoja Santa Green Salsa (Salsa de Momo Chiapaneca)
Los Altos de Chiapas gives this salsa its sharp tomatillo body, tiny chile amashito heat, and the anise-green perfume of momo, the leaf outsiders call hoja santa.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Momo Tabasqueña
Tabasco's lowland salsa keeps momo bright and chile amashito sharp, a loose green spoonful made for grilled pejelagarto, white rice, and the humid river table.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Naranja Agria Yucateca
Yucatan's table acid, sour orange juice sharpened with charred garlic, toasted oregano yucateco, and a whole habanero perfuming the bowl. The drizzle that finishes poc chuc, grilled fish, and every honest plate in Merida.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Pepita Chiapaneca
Chiapas' Central Depression gives this salsa its grammar: toasted pepita, peanut, sesame, and chile simojovel ground into a thick seed paste for totopos, not a show of chile heat.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Soya y Chiltepín de la Chinesca
Mexicali's Chinese-Mexican dipping sauce, soy and chiltepín and lime, served beside fried wontons in La Chinesca since the 1920s. The taste of a city that built its own cuisine on the border.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Tomate Cocido para Corundas
Michoacán's Pátzcuaro table salsa for corundas, built from cooked jitomate, chile perón, garlic, and broth, then finished with crema and queso fresco.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Tomate Verde con Chile Perón
Michoacán's Meseta P'urhépecha salsa, built from boiled tomate verde and floral chile perón, martajada in a molcajete until it tastes like Pátzcuaro, Uruapan, and a wood-fire kitchen.
Chef Lupita
Salsa de Zarzamora con Chile Manzano
Michoacán's Lake Pátzcuaro salsa, zarzamoras crushed in a molcajete with roasted chile manzano or chile perón until sweet fruit and floral fire hold the same spoon.
Chef Graziella
Salsa di Noci
The ancient walnut sauce of the Ligurian hills, where walnuts are pounded with soaked bread and a whisper of garlic into a cream that clings to pasta like nothing else can.
Chef Dean
Salsa Macha
A gutsy Veracruz oil-based salsa packed with fried árbol chiles, shattered peanuts, and golden garlic slivers. One jar transforms everything it touches, from morning eggs to midnight tacos.
Chef Lupita
Salsa Macha Jarocha
Veracruz's Sotavento salsa macha is chile de árbol, garlic, cacahuate, and ajonjolí fried low in oil, a jar condiment for beans, grilled fish, eggs, and anything off the comal.
Chef Lupita
Salsa Macha Oaxaqueña con Chile Cascabel
Oaxaca's shelf-stable chile oil, cascabel and pasilla oaxaqueño steeped in warm oil with toasted garlic, sesame, and peanut. A jar that earns its place on the table for weeks.
Chef Lupita
Salsa Macha Sonorense de Chiltepín y Cacahuate
Sonora's chiltepín-driven salsa macha, a glass jar of wild desert chile, peanuts, sesame, and garlic slow-fried in oil until everything turns mahogany. Spoon it over anything that came off the parrilla.
Chef Lupita
Salsa Molcajeteada para Tlayudas
The Valles Centrales table salsa for tlayudas, charred tomate and chile serrano ground by hand in the volcanic stone molcajete, chunky and smoky, the way the senoras at Mercado 20 de Noviembre have made it for generations.
Chef Lupita
P'urhépecha Molcajete Salsa with Chile Perón
Michoacán's Meseta table salsa, built from comal-tatemado jitomate and chile perón, crushed martajada in volcanic stone so the thick skins, black seeds, and fire-char stay visible.
Chef Lupita
Salsa Negra Sinaloense para Mariscos
Sinaloa's black salsa for the marisqueria table, chile de arbol and morita burned past dark, ground with charred garlic, soy, and vinegar. Smoky, brittle-edged, made for raw oysters and aguachile.
Chef Lupita
Salsa para Enchiladas Mineras (Guajillo en Manteca)
Guanajuato's guajillo salsa for enchiladas mineras, thin enough to coat a tortilla and deep enough from manteca to taste like the Bajio mining towns that built it.
Chef Lupita
Salsa para Enchiladas Queretanas (Guajillo y Comino)
Queretaro's lighter red enchilada sauce, built from toasted chile guajillo, roasted garlic, comino, and Mexican oregano, then fried until the color turns brick-red and the oil shines at the edge.
Chef Lupita
Birriería Red Salsa with Sesame
Jalisco's table salsa for birria de chivo, made with toasted chile de arbol, golden sesame, garlic, and enough consomé to make it pourable without making it timid.
Chef Lupita
Salsa Rosa Sinaloense para Coctel de Camaron
Sinaloa's salsa rosa for camaron, built fast at every marisqueria from Mazatlan to Los Mochis. Catsup, orange juice, lime, salsa Huichol, salsa Maggi, garlic, salt. The chiltepin is the cook's signature.
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