Pellizcada (“pinched” tortilla appetizer)
Pellizcada (Spanish for “pinched”) is a Mexican appetizer similar to a gordita and a chalupa. Tortillas dough is “pinched” up around the edges to contain a filling, and then fried in lard.
Pellizcadas are popular in the Tuxtlas (Veracruz) area of Mexico, but have reached few Mexican restaurants in the United States.
Glossary - Mexican food recipes, cooking terms
Pellizcadas A type of gordita or chalupa that is made by pinching (pellizcar means “to pinch”} up the dough around the edges to create a raised border to help contain the filling.
Gourmet Sleuth
Pellizcada
[peh=yees-KAH-thah ] A Mexican appetizer made of tortilla dough, pinched around the edges and filled. The dish is similar to a quesadilla only sealed on the edges.
Google Books
Eating in Mexico
by Amando Farga
Mexican Restaurant Association
1963
Pg. 106:
...chalupas, pambacitos, pellizcadas;...
Google Books
Mexico: Places and Pleasures
by Kate Simon
Cleveland, OH: World Publishing Company
1963
Pg. 328:
With it have a plateful of pellizcadas, or “gorditas,” which are fat tortillas punched, scraped, and doused with oil—hardly the dieter’s friend,...
Google Books
Tortillas!
by Pat Sparks and Barbara Swanson
New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press
1993
Pg. 114:
“After the Spanish conquered Mexico, the most noticeable shift was in their cuisine. It was a happy one that included the transformation of tortillas; after being fried or sprinkled with chorizo (a Spanish pork sausage), they turned into garnachas, chalupas, sopas, tostadas, tacos, enchiladas, chilaquiles, infladas, molotes, bocoles and pellizcadas.”
—RAYMOND SOKOLOV, “How to Eat Like an Aztec,” from Natural History magazine
Google Books
Frommer’s Guide to Mexico on Forty-Five Dollars a Day
by Marita Adair
New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company, Incorporated
1994
Pg. 502:
Pellizcadas are salted tortillas fried in lard, and local clams are made into ceviche.
17 May 2000, New York (NY) Times, pg. F11:
Conversely, pellizcadas ($5), little disks of fried cornmeal with toppings like chorizo, chicken or crisp bits of pork, were always lively,...
Google Books
Zarela’s Veracruz: Mexico’s Simplest Cuisine
by Zarela Martinez with Anne Mendelson
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Cookbooks
2001
Pg. 111:
People in Veracruz started doing things like mixing the corn masa (dough) with lard and/or pork cracklings to make tortillas con momocho, or pleating the surface of large tortillas into little ridges to catch and hold a good layer of lard with cracklings (pellizcadas).
Pg. 118:
Pellizcadas LARGE “PINCHED” TORTILLAS
PELLIZCADAS ARE ONE OF MANY CHANGES THAT Veracruzan cooks ring on the theme of a fresh corn tortilla formed into an unusual shape and spread or filled with something flavorful. They are large tortillas, sometimes up to 8 inches across on their home ground of the Tuxtlas region, with a curious textured surface that is produced by pinching up tiny folds of the exposed side while the tortilla is still hot and pliant from the griddle. [The effect reminds me of wave crests in paintings of the sea.] The little pleats catch and hold whatever is spread over the pellizcada, classically lard mixed with pork cracklings. If you can’;t see your way to a home-rendering session, you can produce a tasty result with bacon drippings, preferably on the grainy side. Serve as you would ordinary tortillas.
(Recipe follows—ed.)
26 June 2002, Southern Illinoisan:
Note on sopes: The sope has many names and variations in Mexican cooking — huarache, gordita, tlacoyo, pellizcadas or chalupa.
Google Groups: austin.food
Newsgroups: austin.food
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Victor M. Martinez)
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2003 15:39:42 +0000 (UTC)
Local: Mon, Jan 6 2003 10:39 am
Subject: Re: Recipe: Chiles en Nogada
>10 pages or so showed a flat, low-lipped, cast iron skillet. What is a
>clay comal? The same idea but made of clay? I have several cazuelas that
Yes. They are wonderful to cook with because they always have just the right temperature for tortillas and gorditas (and chalupas, pellizcadas, sopes, etc.)
Google Groups: alt.food.mexican-cooking
Newsgroups: alt.food.mexican-cooking
From: “Smac”
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 09:12:04 -0600
Local: Mon, Dec 15 2003 10:12 am
Subject: Re: Salbute?
“The word antojito comes from the Spanish word antojo, which means whim.”
Antojito is not an entrée or a specific recipe but a (LARGE) category of Mexican dishes (based on tortillas) encompassing:
Burritos, Chimichangas, Enchiladas, Entomatadas, Flautas, Garnachas, Gorditas, Molotes, Panuchos, Papadzules, Pellizcadas, Quesadillas,
Salbutes - “Tortilla masa, often with flour added, is formed into a small, fairly thick tortilla, fried until crisp and light, then topped with shredded meat and vegetables. A specialty of the Yucatan”,
Sopes, Tacos (of all sorts), Tamales, Taquitos, Tlacoyos and Tortas compuestas.
8 September 2004, Santa Cruz (CA) Sentinel:
Tufo’s menu included chalupas (“little boats”), gorditas (“little fat ones”), quesadillas, and sopes (also called pellizcadas or “pinched ones”).
Google Books
Empire of the Senses: The Sensual Cultural Reader
by David Howes
New York, NY: Berg Publishers
2005
Pg. 316:
The dish they had served us was called gorditas pellizcadas con manteca—literally, “plump girls pinched with butter.”
(From the short story about Mexico, Under the Jaguar Sun, by Italo Calvino —ed.)