Pantry · Chiles

Pasilla

The long, almost black dried chile of a serious mole: fruit, tobacco, and less heat than it looks.

Capsicum annuum — the dried chilaca, long, dark, and raisiny · Also called chile pasilla, chile negro · From Mexico

Dried pasilla chiles, long and nearly black, on linen.

The journey

Pasilla means 'little raisin.' It is a chilaca left to wrinkle and darken. Moles that want depth without only ancho sweetness reach for it. Markets still mix up the name with ancho; a true pasilla is longer, thinner, and darker.

Six recipes in the Mexican book name it. Guajillo is Tuesday. Ancho is body. Pasilla is the dark note.

Public-domain botanical plate of Capsicum annuum, the species of the pasilla from Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, 1887. — Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen (1887) · Public domain. Source

In the kitchen

Toast gently, soak, and blend. It can taste bitter if you scorch it. Pair with ancho and a little chocolate if you are building a mole, or use it alone for a salsa negra.

Buy pliable, almost black pods. Brittle gray ones are dead.

Healers and the table

Mexican home kitchens treated dark dried chiles as warming food. The richness is the supper.

Pasilla in a mole is cooking. It is not a supplement.

Traditional uses are part of the story of this spice. They are not medical advice.

Used in these ComidaTime kitchens

Find Pasilla on Amazon