Truffle Quesadilla
A folded comal melt with shaved European truffle worked into the cheese off the heat; a CDMX autor-cuisine fold the perfume pays for, and the dish huitlacoche has been quietly translating.
A folded comal melt with shaved European truffle worked into the cheese off the heat; a CDMX autor-cuisine fold the perfume pays for, and the dish huitlacoche has been quietly translating.
Taco Bell's quesadilla; creamy jalapeño sauce, cheese, various proteins.
The Tex-Mex steak quesadilla: carne asada or fajita beef griddled into a flour tortilla over a heavy bed of melting cheese, cut into wedges with salsa, sour cream, and guacamole alongside.
Two flour tortillas with ham and cheese, griddled; like a Mexican grilled cheese/ham sandwich.
A folded tortilla griddled with melted cheese in the crease, defined by a pull, a freckled masa, and a Mexico City argument about whether the cheese is required at all.
American-style quesadilla; large flour tortilla folded with cheese and various fillings, often with sour cream, guacamole.
The gringa shelved under the quesadilla heading: flour tortilla folded over melted cheese and al pastor, the crease pressed shut on the griddle. Same dish, named from the fold.
An oversized masa quesadilla off a Mexico City comal, often blue corn, hand-shaped long and loaded with several guisados. The capital's machete and jirafa, and the con-queso argument.
The quesadilla frita is the one dropped whole into a vat of hot lard, so the masa balloons and crackles into a hard golden shell around a molten core, a different machine from the dry comal entirely.
The quesadilla de tinga folds smoky chipotle-stewed chicken into corn with a melting cheese. The tinga, sweet and tart and reduced, supplies the bite its whole character.
The quesadilla de rajas is decided at the roast: poblano chiles fire-blackened until the skin peels, cut into smoky ribbons, slackened with crema, and folded into corn over a hot comal.
Cheese quesadilla; simple melted cheese in tortilla.
The version where the cheese is the whole subject: Oaxacan string cheese unwound by hand and brought up slowly to a long elastic pull, with two ingredients and nowhere for a mistake to hide.
Spit-shaved al pastor pork closed into a cheese quesadilla on a Mexico City comal; the same filling as the open taco, in a sealed fold with quesillo added.
The quesadilla de papas folds the pantry's cheapest filling, mashed seasoned potato, into a griddled tortilla, and sits at the center of Mexico City's con o sin queso question.
The Mexico City market quesadilla, finished from raw dough at the stall: fresh nixtamalized masa pressed to order, folded over cheese or huitlacoche, fried or comal-seared while you wait.
The Aztec corn fungus, reduced down with epazote and folded with melted cheese into a fresh corn tortilla on a hot comal; central Mexican rainy-season delicacy.
The mushroom quesadilla turns on a long, dry sauté: cook the champiñones past the steam to where they brown, then bind them in quesillo for a soft, meaty bite with no meat in it.
A quesadilla built around a flower that wilts by noon: bright orange flor de calabaza wilted fast, cut with epazote, held in a thread of melted quesillo so the cheese never buries it.
Fresh Mexican chorizo renders its annatto-red fat straight into the melting cheese, staining it orange and seasoning it from within. Drain the grease or the fold will split.
A corn masa quesadilla filled with chicharrón prensado, the pressed pork scraps stewed soft in salsa verde and bound with melting cheese. Rich pork lifted by tomatillo tang.
The Mexican beef quesadilla: griddled bistec or shredded deshebrada folded into a corn tortilla over a stringing melter, the seam pressed shut on the comal until the inside fuses.