Chef Lupita
Atápakua de Cerdo y Hierbabuena (K'uiripita Puesïri)
Michoacán's P'urhépecha atápakua is a masa-thickened sauce and stew at once, built with pork, chile guajillo, and hierbabuena added only at the end.
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Sopa Tarasca de Patzcuaro
Created by
Michoacan's Lake Patzcuaro soup, built from frijol pinto, roasted jitomate, chile pasilla, and lard-fried tortilla strips, finished with crema and queso fresco in the clay bowls of the Meseta.
Soups & Stews
Mexican
Comfort Food
Dinner Party
Make Ahead
30 min
Active Time
2 hr 15 min cook•2 hr 45 min total
Yield6 servings
Michoacan, the Lake Patzcuaro region, owns this bowl. Sopa tarasca lives between the lake towns and the Meseta Purepecha, where beans, corn, chile, clay, and wood fire have been doing their work long before anyone tried to make Mexican food look fashionable.
The base is frijol pinto, jitomate roasted on the comal, and chile pasilla. Not chile powder. Not canned tomato soup with beans hiding inside. Pasilla gives the broth its dark raisin color and its quiet bitterness. The cream softens the edge, the fried tortilla gives the crunch, and the queso fresco brings the salt and milk of the region back to the bowl.
I learned one version in Patzcuaro from a woman who served it in green-glazed clay with the tortilla strips kept separate until the last second. She told me the soup fails in two places: bad beans and raw chile. She was right. You cook the beans until the broth has flavor, toast the chile carefully, fry the puree in manteca, and then you have something a Michoacan cook recognizes.
This is not a soup pretending to be delicate. It is supper. It is make-ahead food. It is the kind of bowl that lets a family eat well without expensive meat. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Sopa tarasca is strongly associated with Patzcuaro and Morelia in Michoacan, and many accounts trace the restaurant version to the mid-20th century, when Felipe Oseguera Iturbide served it at Hosteria San Felipe and named it for the Tarascan, now more properly Purepecha, people. The dish reflects a regional synthesis: Indigenous beans, corn tortillas, and chile pasilla meeting convent and hotel-kitchen habits of crema and cheese. Michoacan's cocineras tradicionales became central public guardians of this food knowledge, and their organized work helped frame the Michoacan paradigm cited in Mexico's 2010 UNESCO inscription for Traditional Mexican Cuisine.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried frijol pinto
Quantity
1 pound
picked over and rinsed
water
Quantity
10 cups, plus more as needed
white onion
Quantity
1/2 medium
for cooking the beans
garlic cloves
Quantity
3
for cooking the beans
epazote
Quantity
1 sprig
kosher salt
Quantity
2 teaspoons, plus more to taste
jitomate guaje or Roma tomatoes
Quantity
1 1/2 pounds
ripe
dried chile pasilla
Quantity
3
stemmed and seeded
dried chile pasilla for garnish
Quantity
2
stemmed, seeded, and cut into thin rings
manteca de cerdo
Quantity
2 tablespoons
white onion
Quantity
1/2 medium
chopped
garlic cloves
Quantity
2
chopped
chicken broth or bean cooking liquid
Quantity
4 cups
dried Mexican oregano
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
corn tortillas
Quantity
6
preferably day-old, cut into thin strips
pork lard or neutral oil
Quantity
1 cup
for frying
crema Mexicana
Quantity
3/4 cup, plus more for serving
queso fresco
Quantity
1 cup
crumbled
ripe avocado (optional)
Quantity
1
diced
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried frijol pintopicked over and rinsed | 1 pound |
| water | 10 cups, plus more as needed |
| white onionfor cooking the beans | 1/2 medium |
| garlic clovesfor cooking the beans | 3 |
| epazote | 1 sprig |
| kosher salt | 2 teaspoons, plus more to taste |
| jitomate guaje or Roma tomatoesripe | 1 1/2 pounds |
| dried chile pasillastemmed and seeded | 3 |
| dried chile pasilla for garnishstemmed, seeded, and cut into thin rings | 2 |
| manteca de cerdo | 2 tablespoons |
| white onionchopped | 1/2 medium |
| garlic cloveschopped | 2 |
| chicken broth or bean cooking liquid | 4 cups |
| dried Mexican oregano | 1/2 teaspoon |
| corn tortillaspreferably day-old, cut into thin strips | 6 |
| pork lard or neutral oilfor frying | 1 cup |
| crema Mexicana | 3/4 cup, plus more for serving |
| queso frescocrumbled | 1 cup |
| ripe avocado (optional)diced | 1 |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy bean pot or 5-quart Dutch oven
- •Cast iron comal for chiles and jitomates
- •High-powered blender
- •12-inch clay cazuela or heavy saucepan
- •Fine-mesh strainer, optional for a very smooth soup
Instructions
- 1
Cook the beans
Put the frijol pinto in a heavy pot with the water, half onion, garlic, and epazote. Bring to a simmer, then cook gently until the beans are fully tender, about 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours depending on the age of the beans. Salt them only after they soften. The bean broth should taste full, not watery. This broth is part of the soup, so do not throw it away.
Old beans take longer. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado. They will tell you which sacks are fresh and which have been sitting there too long. - 2
Toast the chile
Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the 3 chile pasilla for the soup for 10 to 15 seconds per side, just until fragrant and flexible. Pasilla is thin and bitter when burned. Do not walk away. Cover the toasted chiles with hot water and let them soften for 15 minutes.
- 3
Roast the tomatoes
On the same comal, roast the jitomates until the skins blister and blacken in spots, turning them so the flesh softens evenly. This gives the soup its roasted body. Raw tomato makes a nervous soup. Roasted tomato settles down and tastes like Patzcuaro.
- 4
Blend the base
Drain the soaked chiles. Blend them with the roasted jitomates, chopped onion, chopped garlic, and 2 cups of cooked beans with some of their broth. Blend until completely smooth. If your blender struggles, add a little more bean broth. You want a pourable puree, not a paste.
- 5
Fry the puree
Melt the 2 tablespoons manteca de cerdo in a clay cazuela or heavy pot over medium heat. Pour in the blended bean and chile base. It will sputter. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until it darkens slightly and the fat begins to shine at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. This frying step gives the soup depth. Skip it and the beans taste flat.
- 6
Simmer the soup
Add the remaining cooked beans, the chicken broth or bean cooking liquid, and the dried Mexican oregano. Simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring from the bottom so the bean puree does not catch. Taste for salt. The texture should be creamy and spoon-coating, thinner than refried beans and thicker than caldo.
- 7
Fry the garnish
Heat the lard or oil in a small skillet. Fry the tortilla strips until crisp and golden, then drain on paper towels. Fry the chile pasilla rings for only a few seconds, just until they darken and smell toasted. Pull them out quickly. Burned pasilla ruins the bowl, and I will not argue with anyone about that.
- 8
Finish with crema
Lower the heat. Stir 3/4 cup crema Mexicana into the soup until it turns smooth and brick-red, with the chile and bean color still visible. Do not boil hard after adding crema or it can split. This is a cream caldo, not a pot of dairy hiding the beans.
- 9
Serve in clay
Ladle the sopa tarasca into warm clay bowls. Top each bowl with fried tortilla strips, fried chile pasilla, crumbled queso fresco, a small ribbon of crema, and diced avocado if using. Serve immediately, with more tortilla strips at the table. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Chef Tips
- •Use frijol pinto or frijol bayo from a Mexican market if you can. Canned beans will make soup, yes, but the cooking broth from dried beans is where the body lives. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •Chile pasilla is the long, dark, wrinkled dried chilaca. Do not confuse it with ancho. Ancho is sweeter and broader. For this Patzcuaro bowl, pasilla gives the right dark fruit and bitter edge.
- •If your tomatoes are pale and hard, roast them longer and add one tablespoon of tomato paste while frying the puree. If the jitomates are not good right now, do not pretend. The market decides the soup.
- •Fry the tortilla strips close to serving. Limp tortilla on top of sopa tarasca is laziness, not tradition.
- •Clay matters at the table. A Capula or Tzintzuntzan bowl holds the warmth and tells you where the dish is from before the spoon reaches your mouth.
Advance Preparation
- •The beans can be cooked up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated in their broth. The soup will be better if you start there.
- •The blended bean, tomato, and chile base can be made 1 day ahead. Fry it in manteca and finish with crema on the day you serve.
- •The finished soup keeps refrigerated for 3 days. Reheat gently and add a splash of bean broth or chicken broth if it thickens too much.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 445g)
Calories
620 calories
Total Fat
28 g
Saturated Fat
10 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
15 g
Cholesterol
45 mg
Sodium
1520 mg
Total Carbohydrates
72 g
Dietary Fiber
20 g
Sugars
10 g
Protein
25 g
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