Tomato Pasta #8 | Entomatadas
Can't shake the chopped tomato (with pasta) habit? Me neither. Here's another way to use up those tins.
We spent the entirety of the school summer holidays in Mexico.
It was horrible, you’d have hated it. Look:
Still, on the positive side, there was plenty of eating to be done.
En[sauced]
Something I got stuck into, which I’d probably not thought about before, was the family of filled, rolled and sauced tortillas dishes that all begin with ‘en’: Entomatadas; Enmoladas; Enfrijoladas; and the one that get’s more airtime, Enchiladas.
The ‘en’ means ‘in’. The middle bit gives a clue as to the sauce. The ‘adas’ means … I never got that far.
To decode further: Enchiladas = a chilli-powered salsa; Enfrijoladas = a black bean purée; Enmoladas = mole (many and varied versions of an aromatics and multi-spiced paste, which is thinned to make a sauce); and Entomatadas = a passata-like, smooth, silky and unusually not hot tomato sauce.
I enjoyed them all. Most often as a steadying and filling late breakfast or early lunch.
En[the middle]
The rolled tortillas on the black plates above were all filled with crushed potatoes. Which my research on return suggests is less typical than beans, cheese, eggs or shredded chicken.
But the spud-filled versions I had worked well, and fairly early on I determined that this is a dish I could and should be recreating at home.
Not in the aforementioned first half of the day, but as a deceptively quick, easy and budget-balancing mid week meal — i.e. in the all important Tomato Pasta slot.
So I have begun to recreate. And it’s good!
I suppose dredging and rolling the tortillas is a little messier and a tiny bit more time consuming than stirring pasta through a sauce.
But, either that’s not a big deal (and is fun). Or, actually, this the kind of thing that you could have mostly prepared in advance (cooked the potatoes, blitzed a sauce, have the tortillas and any other toppings to hand), and can quickly throw together for hangry kids in that dreaded immediately after school moment, and then you can do again for yourself later on.
A quick note on ingredients and sourcing
While potatoes appear to be atypical, they’re easy on the sourcing front when outside Mexico. I suggest boiling and lightly crushing baby potatoes, but any general use potato would be fine.
Tortillas should be made from corn, not wheat. For UK-based readers, these remain relatively rare in supermarkets. But can often be found in many corner shops, and are easy to get online: try Cool Chile; Mex Grocer; Sous Chef. You could also press them yourself, using masa harina (again, available through those suppliers). Doing so is fun and simple, but it does take a little time. And the spirit of this particular column is convenience … so go easy on yourself.
Toppings normally include crema (the dots, splurges and dashes of dairy that you can see) and cotija (the crumbly cheese). Neither are readily available in the UK. But mixing a little lime juice into soured cream or creme fraiche creates an adequate replacement for the crema; and a mild feta does the same job as cotija.
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Recipe: Entomatadas
You can of course make this in one go from start to finish. But, as mentioned, it’s quite good as something that can be assembled very quickly, having prepared the constituent parts in advance.
Serves 4
For the sauce
1 jalapeño chile (optional)
3 x 400g cans pulped or chopped tomatoes
1 small onion, halved
2 cloves garlic, very finely sliced
20g salted butter
1 tsp caster sugar
Generous pinch of salt
The rest
750g baby potatoes, boiled until tender, drained and lightly crushed
150ml soured cream or creme fraiche
Juice of 1/2 a lime
100g mild feta, crushed with the back of a fork
1 baby gem lettuce, finely shredded
2 tbsp vegetable oil
12 x 12cm corn tortillas
Set a saucepan over a medium-high heat. If using a jalapeño (you’ll see it adds a layer of flavour, rather than heat), add this to the pan and let is scorch for a minute or two. Reduce the heat, pour in the chopped tomatoes, plus one can’s worth of water. Add the onion, garlic, butter, sugar and a generous pinch of salt, then simmer for 10 minutes, to let things mingle.
Remove and discard the onion and chilli (they’ve done their work), then blitz to a silky sauce using a stand or hand blender. The consistency should be pourable, so not as thick as a tomato soup. Thin with a little water if needed.
Prepare your potatoes and gather the other fillings and toppings: If the potatoes were cooked in advance, warm them in a dry frying pan; stir the lime juice into the soured cream or creme fraiche; crumble the feta and slice the lettuce; And if not already run one, transfer the tomato sauce to a pan in which a tortilla will fit, and keep warm/gently heat.
In a separate frying pan, heat the oil and briefly fry the corn tortillas, just so they slightly blister and warm (approximately 20-30 seconds each side). This is so that they become fully pliable. the frying also seems to stop the tortillas soaking up too much sauce when dredged.
One by one, dredge the tortillas in the warm tomato sauce. Then transfer to a large plate, fill with a little potato and a few crumbs of feta, and roll into a tube. Repeat, transferring 3 tortillas to each plate.
Spoon warm tomato sauce over the tortillas. Be generous. Then top with lettuce, feta and a splodge of your ‘crema’.
That’s it. See you next week.
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Delicious! ( Enfrijoladas can be made with pinto beans too.)