The Creamy Sandwich Spread You're Probably Overlooking

Mexico may be home to the globally famous and beloved taco, but the country's residents also love their sandwiches — or tortas. You might be accustomed to spreading mayonnaise and/or mustard on your sandwich bread, but Mexicans prefer a different creamy sandwich spread: refried beans! We interviewed chef and media personality Ronaldo Linares, who gave us an example of how Mexicans build a sandwich.

His instructions were to "use refried beans as a spread, add some steak, Mexican cheese, cooked onions, some pickled jalapenos, and you have a delicious sandwich or torta." Refried beans are earthy, hearty, and creamy enough for easy spreadability. Just as you'd add charro beans to steak or chicken fajitas, spreading refried beans onto a meaty sandwich is the ultimate savory compliment to an umami-rich meat filling. Refried beans can also moisten dry toasted bread and provide a creamy, rich textural contrast to chewy meat and crunchy fillings.

Refried beans aren't the only indicator of a traditional Mexican torta. Linares stresses that the type of bread you use is just as important; "in order for it [the torta] to be authentic you need to use pan telera," he said. 

Pan telera, is the most common sandwich bread in Mexico, characterized by a light, fluffy crumb and a wide, oval shape with two vertical indentations on top. It toasts up very easily and its airy crunchy texture offers some much-needed levity to the meaty, cheesy fillings and layer of refried bean spread.  

You can find pan telera at most Mexican bakeries, but if you can't find any, Cuban sandwich bread or even white hamburger buns will toast up into a similar texture for a Mexican torta. Of course, you could always use bolillos, the other type of bread Mexico is famous for. Bolillos have a chewier, denser crumb, thicker, crustier crust, and a longer shape like French bread, but many sandwich stands use the bolillos as well as pan telera. In fact, halved bolillos are the more popular choice for molletes, or open-faced sandwiches garnished with — you guessed it — refried black beans.

Black refried beans are also the most common type you'll see in sandwiches and are often accompanied by avocados, crema, and salsa. However, refried pinto, bayo, or peruano beans (which are popular even outside of Peru) would also be a great choice because they're mild, buttery, and even creamier than black beans. Buttery, mild pinto beans would work nicely with a chicken or pork torta. Linares also mentions Mexican cheese, refering to Oaxaca, panela, queso fresco,  and asadero.

Mexican cooking generally takes place over a stove or comal, and tortas are no different. Melting cheese and toasting the bread for a typical torta can all be done on a skillet or flat top. If you're making sauteed veggies or warming up leftover steak for your torta, you can sprinkle them with cheese at the tail end of their saute, then cover with a top to melt the cheese.