Tortilla Tower -aka lazy quesadilla
10 crèpes or 10 x 5” (12 cm) corn tortillas
Great for quick back to school dinner and almost no cooking.
There are quite a few varieties of pepper jelly on the market. Both sweet and hot pepper jelly are based on sugar, but sweet pepper jelly is very mild. If you mix a sweet pepper jelly with a lot of other ingredients, you really lose any heat factor. You can also add Tabasco or other hot sauces to raise the heat if you want. Even if you used exactly the same pepper jelly as I did, your taste could want more or less heat. Also realize that the pepper jelly tasted on a spoon will taste far hotter than once it is mixed with other ingredients. I don't like pieces of jalapeño stuck in my teeth and difficulty of controlling heat factor. In NH I tend to buy Trappist brand made by monks in Ma and easily available. Standing making quesadillas for a family is a pain. This filling is also excellent served warm as a dip with tortilla chips, or served over rice (optional with cilantro, avocado, sour cream, more cheese, salsa).
One of my September 2016 recipes for Beyond Celiac - originally National Foundation for Celiac Awareness
Use your favorite corn or gf flour tortillas – I buy Mission or Ole corn tortillas labeled gluten free. Remember that corn is naturally gluten free but very easily cross contaminated so I only buy corn products labeled gluten free. Please note this is New England so the variety of tortillas available to us is probably quite limited compared to southern states.
Add as many vegetables as you like for more veg in relation to ricotta and ham. Leave out meat to make it vegetarian. Zucchini and summer squash cut small are tasty additions.
10 crèpes or 10 x 5” (12 cm) corn tortillas – I make one five corn tortillas stack for husband and I (half the recipe). I have 1/3 and he has the rest and is stuffed.
1 lb (500g) Ricotta cheese - whole milk or skimmed. I use Galbani which is very firm. Or homemade cashew cheese is also good.
6 tbsp (90 ml) hot pepper jelly
1 tbsp (15 ml) butter or oil
small onion, peeled and finely chopped
red bell pepper, deseeded and cut into small pieces
11 oz (300g) can of corn drained, or fresh corn sliced from one cob
¼ c (60ml) chopped fresh parsley.
Cilantro – optional, if you like it you know how much to add.
½ lb (250g) finely chopped ham, not thin deli slices. I buy a 7 oz Jones ready cooked ham steak. I tried this with the Carando pepperoni salami cut thick and diced, but it was too spicy and stayed too hard to eat. Try with leftover cooked chicken, pork, shrimp etc.
Add 1 cup (4 oz, 125 g) of Mexican cheese blend if you want to filling and more to sprinkle on top.
1 egg – optional if you want filling to stay in one place and not ooze out.
Filling:
1. Cook onion and bell pepper in tablespoon butter or oil, in microwave in 8 cup microwave safe bowl for about 3 minutes.
2. Add corn. If you use fresh corn, then cook for a few more minutes. Add pepper jelly and let melt.
3.Add ricotta cheese, parsley, and ham. Taste and see if you want any salt and pepper or additional heat added. I make just a mild kick (husband can't tolerate a lot of heat) and we enjoy the sweetness of the pepper jelly.
4. Get two microwave safe dinner plates for microwaving. Or oven safe plates for oven.
5. Put one tortilla on each plate, scoop some filling on top and spread out. Repeat with 4 more tortillas and filling on each plate, dividing filling up as evenly as you can and ending with a tortilla. BUT by layering tortillas and filling like a cake, the filling is more evenly distributed like a cake, than filling tortillas and rolling.
6. Sprinkle with Mexican cheese. Cover dish. Bake in 350* oven for 15-20 minutes until filling is heated through. There is nothing in the filling that actually needs cooking so don’t over cook. Or just zap in microwave. With ricotta cheese the filling will ooze out sides, but just scoop it up.
