Boards, snacks and starters
Quesadilla
A tortilla folded over cheese and other fillings and cooked on a griddle until the cheese melts.
A quesadilla is a tortilla, usually of corn in central Mexico, folded around a filling and cooked on a comal, a flat griddle, until hot. The classic filling is melting cheese, especially queso Oaxaca, often with squash blossom, mushrooms or huitlacoche, the corn fungus. Quesadillas are sold at street stalls and markets all over Mexico.
What goes in
- Oaxaca cheese531%, Pulled into strings.
- Corn tortilla or masa638%, Fresh.
- Squash blossom or mushrooms213%, Optional filling.
- Epazote16%, Herb.
- Salsa213%, To serve.
Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.
Made step by step
Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.
Step 1: Knead Press fresh masa into a tortilla or warm a ready tortilla on the comal. Step 2: Grate Pull the cheese into thin strings. Step 3: Fill Lay cheese and any other filling on half the tortilla and fold it over. Step 4: Melt Cook on the hot comal, turning once, until the cheese melts. Step 5: Serve Serve hot with salsa. Finished Quesadilla, by share.
Must it have cheese
The name comes from queso, cheese, but in Mexico City a quesadilla often contains no cheese unless the customer asks for it. Vendors sell quesadillas of potato, chicharrón or mushrooms, and cheese is an extra. In much of the rest of Mexico, cheese is assumed. The question is a long-running joke and a real argument between the capital and the provinces.
Masa and flour
In central and southern Mexico, quesadillas are made from fresh masa, corn dough, pressed into a tortilla, filled raw, and cooked on the comal or fried. In the north, flour tortillas are more common, and the filling is usually cheese alone. The cheese of choice is Oaxaca, a stretchy string cheese wound into balls, though Chihuahua and others are used.
Where it is used
The cheeses in it
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Sources and further reading
Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.