Mastering the art of a Yucatán pork taco

Houston chef now at Goodnight Charlie’s impressed with Yucatán dish

What connection does the world’s No. 1 restaurant, Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, share with the Houston restaurant scene?

A taco. More specifically, a cochinita pibil taco.

We have Felipe Riccio, executive chef of Goodnight Charlie’s, to thank for that. Before Goodnight Charlie’s opened, Riccio moved to Modena while he staged — an unpaid internship where a chef works for free in another chef ’s kitchen to learn new cuisines and techniques — for three months at chef Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana, which recently

topped the 2018 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

As was custom, Bottura asked his stages to take turns preparing a staff meal that said something about each chef ’s culture or culinary personality. Riccio — who grew up in coastal Veracruz, Mexico, to a mother of Spanish heritage and a father who is from Naples, Italy — took his turn seriously. He decided on a taco filled with cochinita pibil — pork in an achiote paste cooked in banana leaves, a dish native to Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula, and one he grew up eating.

Sourcing the ingredients in Italy wasn’t a problem but took some research. It turns out that Milan has Peruvian, Malaysian and Sri Lankan populations, which helped in finding achiote and banana leaves. He even located Maseca (corn masa flour) to make tortillas.

“It’s a special-occasion dish because of the time it takes,” Riccio said of the recipe that came from his maternal grandmother.

Riccio wanted to impress his co-workers and, not incidentally, Bottura, a master of contemporary Italian cuisine. The tacos were a hit.

“These were flavors a lot of them never had before,” Riccio said. “Some of them never had a tortilla.”

And as for Bottura’s reaction? “He was pretty happy with it,” Riccio said.

The same tacos that wowed workers at the world’s most vaunted restaurant can today be consumed at Goodnight Charlie’s, the honky-tonk at 2531 Kuester that opened in December 2017 from partners Peter McCarthy, David Keck and Riccio. Riccio’s cochinita pibil is exceedingly juicy and vibrantly colored — fireball red/orange, thanks to the achiote.

Riccio recently shared his recipe with the Houston Chronicle. The only difference is that his kitchen toasts the spices in chorizo fat and slathers the paste on pork from Black Hill Ranch. Home cooks can use lard or bacon fat, and pork butt from their favorite supermarket. Goodnight Charlie’s also makes its own corn tortillas from scratch. Find the best corn tortillas you can if you do not make your own. Ingredients such as achiote seeds and banana leaves can be found at Fiesta stores, select H-E-B stores and at Canino Produce on Airline.

Steve Gonzales / Houston Chronicle Finished cochinita pibil tacos, topped with pickled onions and habanero salsa, are served at Goodnight Charlie’s. Recipe, page D8

Steve Gonzales / Houston Chronicle Spices are toasted and cooked in fat before being puréed into a paste to make cochinita pibil.

The achiote lends cochinita pibil a vibrant color. Achiote seeds can be found at Fiesta, select H-E-B stores or Canino Produce.

Felipe Riccio of Goodnight Charlie’s sears pork on a grill, one of the steps to making cochinita pibil.

Seared pork is covered in spiced achiote paste.

The pork is wrapped in banana leaves. The dish is time consuming but flavorful.

After cooking in the oven for 10 to 12 hours, cochinita pibil is tender and juicy.