Mole poblano

What makes it mole poblano

• Several dried chillies — mulato, ancho, pasilla, chipotle — toasted and ground.
• Nuts, seeds, dried fruit and spices, fried and blended.
• A little chocolate for depth, not sweetness.

Where it comes from

Legend places its invention in a Puebla convent in the colonial era, the nuns improvising a dish for a visiting archbishop. Historians see it instead as a slow meeting of Mesoamerican chilli sauces — mōlli, in Nahuatl, simply means sauce — with the spices and nuts of Spain.

It can take two dozen ingredients and days of work, which is why it's the dish of weddings, baptisms and saints' days, often made by several generations at once.

How it varies

Mole negro

Oaxaca's, darker still, with chilhuacle chillies.

Mole verde

Green, from pumpkin seeds, tomatillo and herbs.