I found a jar of salsa in my cupboard this weekend and was hit hard by a craving for nachos. Every once and a while, I look up a recipe for something that I have been making for a long time on my own just to see how a pro would do it. A lot of the recipes I looked at were highly involved (e.g. placing a jalapeno slice on each individual chip), so this one came out on top.

Ingredients

• 1 pound Mexican chorizo, removed from casings and crumbled
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 cups cooked pinto beans
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Water
• Homemade Tortilla Chips, recipe below, or large, restaurant style corn tortilla chips
• 1 1/2 cups grated pepper jack
• 1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar
• 1 small white onion, sliced into thin rings
• 5 large jalapenos, stemmed, seeded, and chopped, or to taste
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• Chopped fresh cilantro leaves, for garnish

Directions

In a large skillet, cook the chorizo, garlic, and cumin, stirring, over medium-high heat until the sausage is browned and the fat is rendered, about 5 minutes. Remove and drain on paper towels. To the fat in the pan, add the pinto beans, chili powder, salt, and 1 to 1 1/2 cups water (depending on the moisture in the beans). Cook over medium heat until warmed through, smashing with the back of a heavy wooden spoon or potato masher until chunky/smooth. Remove from the heat.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

On a large, oval ovenproof platter or in a large baking dish, spread 1 layer of chips. Top with a layer of 1/2 of the beans, then 1/2 of the sausage, cheeses, onion rings, and chopped jalapenos. Repeat with another layer of chips, beans, sausage, cheese, onions and jalapenos. Bake until the cheeses are melted and the mixture is hot, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from the oven.

In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and lime juice, with a pinch of salt. Drizzle over the nachos, garnish with cilantro, and serve immediately.

Recipe Notes:

• Again with the Emeril. Normally find him off-putting, with the essences and the toothpaste commercials and the cult of personality, but he does put some pretty easy -- and easily adaptable -- recipes out there.
• I subbed black beans for the pinto beans because I had them on hand.
• I used only cheddar for the same reason.
• Speaking of which, "sharp" is the American way of saying "old." Ageists!
• In references to the beans, I interpreted "cooked" as "not dry" and "chunky/smooth" as "to your desired consistency."
• I choose to chop my onion rather than create rings. Also, mine was red.
• Let me tell you how much I did not make my own tortilla chips, which is why the recipe is not here.
• For no real reason, I didn't bother including jalapenos.
• Eff that garnish. Cilantro is one of the more horrid tastes in nature.
• Sour cream with lime juice and a dash of salt, however, is delicious. You should just mix that up the next time you make nachos, whatever recipe you use.
• I choose to dip rather than drizzle, though my companions did not.
• We used a 13 x 9 casserole dish, which I would caution you is perhaps not big enough. More than one of us needed extra chips to scoop up the toppings left behind on our plates. Not that anyone was complaining.
• Please note that the salsa did not get used. Poor salsa!