Tortas Mexicanas

Ordering a sandwich in Mexico will probably get you either a hamburger or a burrito, but they do have a sandwich all their own—the torta. A torta is basically a sandwich with Mexican-style toppings. One staple in the Mexican kitchen is the bolillo (bo-LEE-o), a crusty roll that usually comes either in a fist-sized or head-sized variety. Most people pick up a few at the bakery in the morning and use them at some point throughout the day. The torta is one use. Despite the commonality of bolillos, however, there were none to be found in Mexican stores in the Akron-area, so we found a recipe and made our own. For toppings we had a light spread of refried beans, shredded cheese, TVP fashioned into taco meat, a red onion and cilantro preparation, sliced tomatoes, black olives, avocados, and lettuce. We each also used Chipotle-style Tabasco sauce to taste. After piling it all on, the sandwiches were a bit tall, like this:



Still, once it was all squished together (see below), it was ready to eat, and eat them we did. They are highly recommended.