Mexican tostadas, a crispy snack made of a toasted or fried tortilla piled with a variety of toppings, are a simple and delicious way to use up stale tortillas and any odds and ends from your fridge. Tostadas are easy to make at home, but since everything literally rests on the tortilla, you have to make or buy the right kinds.

Corn is a major staple of Mexican cuisine, and one of its most common uses is to make tortillas; soft flour tortillas made of wheat are actually not used in traditional Mexican recipes. This means corn tortillas are the only choice for the best tostadas, and to try making this dish, you can choose from various methods to crisp up your tortilla.

You can either toast stale corn tortillas on a griddle or skillet, in a 450-degrees F oven, or shallow-fry them in hot oil. Once they're crisp, pile them with toppings such as meat, fish, sausage, cheese, veggies, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, and anything else that's taking up space in your fridge and would taste good on a tortilla.