Sopa de Fideo Bajio con Xoconostle

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Dry comal or heavy cast iron skillet
• •Blender
• •Medium clay cazuela or heavy 4-quart pot
• •Medium-mesh strainer

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the base

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile guajillo for 20 to 30 seconds per side, just until the skin darkens and smells fruity. Do not burn it. Roast the tomatoes, onion quarter, and unpeeled garlic on the same comal until the tomatoes blister and the garlic softens. This is the Bajio way of giving a quick soup real depth.

2. 2

   Soften the chile

   Put the toasted guajillos in a bowl and cover with hot water for 15 minutes. Hot, not boiling. Boiling water pulls bitterness from the skin. Peel the roasted garlic while the chiles soften.

3. 3

   Blend the recaudo

   Drain the chiles and put them in a blender with the roasted tomatoes, roasted onion, peeled garlic, chilcuague root, oregano, salt, and 1 cup of broth. Blend until completely smooth. If you use chilcuague, use a small piece. It tingles on the tongue. Too much and the soup stops being soup and starts arguing with you.

4. 4

   Fry the fideo

   Melt the manteca de cerdo in a clay cazuela or heavy pot over medium heat. Add the fideo and stir constantly until the noodles turn evenly golden, 4 to 6 minutes. Some pieces will go deeper brown. Good. That toasted wheat flavor is why fideo works. La manteca es el sabor.

5. 5

   Fry the sauce

   Pour the blended chile-tomato sauce through a medium strainer directly into the pot with the fideo. It will sputter, so stand back and stir. Cook for 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens, darkens slightly, and the fat begins to show at the edges. Skip this frying and the soup tastes raw. No me vengas con atajos.

6. 6

   Simmer the soup

   Add the remaining 5 cups broth, the diced xoconostle, epazote, and cacahuazintle if using. Bring to a lively simmer, then reduce the heat and cook 10 to 12 minutes, until the fideo is tender but not swollen to paste. The xoconostle should keep its bite and make the broth bright, not sweet.

7. 7

   Finish and serve

   Taste for salt. Remove the epazote sprig. Ladle into deep clay bowls and top with chopped cilantro, a little raw white onion, and crumbled queso ranchero. Serve lime halves and warm corn tortillas at the table. The broth should be red-orange, glossy, and sharp from the xoconostle. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Choose xoconostles that feel firm and heavy, with skin that is pale green, yellow, or blushed pink depending on the variety. If the fruit is soft and sweet-smelling, you bought tuna, not xoconostle. Ask the women at the market. Preguntale a las señoras del mercado.
• •Chilcuague is powerful and hard to find outside Guanajuato and San Luis Potosi. Use a piece the size of a small bean for a gentle tingle, or leave it out if you cannot source it. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Cacahuazintle is optional here because this is still fideo soup, not pozole. Add it when you want a fuller supper. The kernels bring the milpa into the bowl without turning the dish into something else.
• •Do not use cheddar, sour cream, flour tortillas, or iceberg lettuce. That is not the Bajio table. Use queso ranchero or queso fresco, cilantro, white onion, lime, and corn tortillas.
• •If the xoconostles at the market are dry or old, make a plain sopa de fideo that day and wait. Cook what the mercado is selling, not what a recipe promised you three weeks ago.

Advance Preparation

• •The chile-tomato recaudo can be blended one day ahead and refrigerated. Fry it only when you make the soup so the flavor stays alive.
• •Roasted tomatoes, onion, and garlic can be prepared in the morning and held covered at room temperature for a few hours.
• •This soup is best eaten the day it is made. Fideo keeps absorbing broth as it sits. If you must reheat it, add more broth and correct the salt.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 420g)