Molletes
Split roll, refried beans, melted cheese and pico de gallo.
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Pull a little bread out of the middle before you toast. It takes ten seconds and it is why restaurant molletes hold their beans instead of sliding them onto your lap at the first bite.
Ingredients
Everything below makes 2 servings.
- 2 rollbolillo rollssplit lengthwise; a small baguette cut into lengths also works
- 1 cuprefried beanswarmed, loosened with a splash of water
- 1½ cupsOaxaca cheeseshredded or pulled into strands
- 2 mediumRoma tomatoseeded and finely diced
- ¼ mediumwhite onionfinely diced
- 3 tbspfresh cilantrochopped
- ½ mediumjalapenoseeded and minced - leave the seeds for more heat
- ½ mediumlimejuiced
- ¼ tspkosher salt
In the app these rescale to however many people you're feeding.
Nutrition
Per serving, as written.
- 460calories
- 19gprotein
- 52gcarbs
- 19gfat
Swaps move these numbers. A different protein or base changes them.
Instructions
Knife work first, then the stove. Nothing below asks you to chop while something burns.
- Make the pico first: stir the diced Roma tomato, white onion, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice and kosher salt together in a small bowl and leave it while everything else happens. It gets better in that fifteen minutes.
- Warm the refried beans with a splash of water until they are spreadable rather than stiff - straight from the tin they tear the bread.
Split and toast
Heat the broiler. Split the rolls lengthwise, pull out a little of the soft inside to make a shallow trough, and toast them cut-side-up under the broiler for 2 min until the surface is dry and just golden. This dry layer is what stops the beans soaking straight through.
2 min · hands onBeans and cheese
Spread the warmed refried beans thickly into each trough, then pile the cheese over the top, covering the beans completely and going right to the edges - the edges are where you get the crisp brown lacy bits.
3 min · hands onBroil until blistered
Back under the broiler, 4-6 min, until the cheese is fully melted and blistered brown in patches. Stay at the oven and watch - broilers go from pale to burnt in under a minute and there is no recovering it.
5 min · hands onTop with pico
Spoon the pico de gallo generously over the hot molten cheese, letting the lime juice run into it. The cold sharp salsa against the hot cheese is the entire dish. Eat immediately.
1 min · hands onMake it yours
Every swap here is one Maui already knows how to make, including what it does to the timing.
One per mollete, laid on after the broiler - adds an egg allergen. Adds about 4 minutes.
Brown 4 oz chorizo, drain, fold through the beans - no longer vegetarian. Adds about 8 minutes.
Fan a half avocado over each after broiling, never before. Adds about 2 minutes.
Needs an extra minute under the broiler - most vegan cheese melts slowly.
What keeps
Assembled molletes go soggy fast and reheated melted cheese is rubbery. The pico is better made ahead though - it improves after an hour and keeps two days.
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