This Saucy Dinner (or Breakfast) Brought to You By Tortillas, Tomatoes & Cheese

Just as enchiladas are tortillas covered in chile sauce, and enfrijoladas are tortillas covered in beans, here comes the third musketeer: entomatadas, tortillas covered in tomato sauce. And if you turn those tortillas into chips before you sog them, you'll be veering into the realm of chilaquiles.

But for now: entomatadas!

Like enchiladas that have shrugged off their heavy winter coats, entomatadas are a bit lighter, milder, and sweeter, well-suited to warming weather and earlier hours, to a glass of orange juice rather than a bottle of beer.

The first time I tried them was at El Diablo y la Sandia, a delightful bed and breakfast in Oaxaca City. One of those breakfasts consisted of two expertly-folded tortilla triangles plumped with stringy, partially melted cheese and submerged in a thin, creamy-red pool of tomato sauce.

The process of making entomatadas is not for fingers that fear mess (especially if you, like me, are not as expert as the women at that Oaxacan inn): Once you’ve heated the tortillas (you can char them over an open flame, warm them in the oven, or even fry them), you’ll dip each one into tomato sauce so that it's fully coated, then throw on some cheese (shredded Oaxaca cheese, which pulls into thin strands, or the totally untraditional mozzarella, provolone, or to-be-determined mild, melty cheese), and fold it over. Press down a bit to soften the cheese in the sauce's residual heat. There will be sauce on your countertops.

(A note on folding: In Oaxaca, there are corn tortillas large enough to be folded over twice—these become the base of tlayudas; in New York, the only corn tortillas I have found can only be comfortably folded once.)

Transfer two or three tortilla pockets to every plate, then spoon more sauce over top, if you’d like, and get to the toppings: crumbled cotija (again, you might buck tradition and add goat cheese or feta or something else crumbly, tangy, and/or salty), sliced avocados, chopped sun-dried tomatoes (feel free to leave these off), and rips of cilantro.

You’ll find recipes for entomatadas made with fresh tomatoes or with tortillas that are rolled instead of folded; some get covered in a layer of cheese and baked. The version here is close to what I ate in Oaxaca, and I like skipping the baked cheese topping, as it leaves the tortillas soft and saucy all over, the tomato sauce un-muffled by too much cheese.

Since the sauce, adapted from Bon Appétit’s smoky tomato salsa, does include chipotles in adobo, perhaps it does qualify as chile-based. It is tomato-forward, though, and you could easily leave out the chipotles, using fresh jalapeño in its place or skipping them entirely (and, for a touch of added sweetness, try adding a couple tablespoons of molasses when you blend the sauce, as in BA's original recipe).

And to use up the rest of the bag of tortillas, why not try...

What's your favorite tortilla-based dish? Tell us in the comments below.