Christmas Rolls (Tortas de Navidad)

Serve when

Serve them as the story begins — the January recipe, chopped through tears of onion and everything else.

In the movie

The opening recipe of Laura Esquivel's novel (January chapter), carried into the film's opening — the dish Tita is born crying over.

Theatrical

00:01:42 The film opens as the novel does, with tortas de navidad — Tita born on the kitchen table amid the onions for the Christmas rolls, the narrator's family recipe framing the whole story.

The dish that opens both book and film — and the kitchen where Tita is born amid onion tears sets the rule the story lives by: her life will be conducted entirely through food. It's an odd, honest, old-borderlands recipe: sardines and chorizo, richer than it sounds.

Ingredients

6 bolillo rolls (or small crusty rolls)
1 can sardines in tomato sauce (the traditional heart of the dish)
8 oz chorizo, crumbled and fried
1 onion, finely chopped (tears traditional)
2 serrano chiles, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Crema, to serve

Method

Fry the chorizo until crisp; drain.
Mash the sardines with the onion, chiles, and oregano; fold in the chorizo.
Split the rolls, hollow slightly, and fill generously.
Warm in a low oven 10 minutes so the flavors marry — the novel insists the filling improves with rest.
Serve with crema, and cry only as much as the onions require.

Beyond the recipe

Watch & shop

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

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