Delicious light lunch, done in 10 minutes from start-to-finish. Details below!
I love the idea of a pizzadilla. And no, I’m not talking about that monstrosity that is floating around YouTube as some massive, heavy, breaded and fried chicken quesadilla that is then placed inside a baking dish, topped with pizza ingredients, baked, then served to celebrities just to see their reaction. That’s not a pizzadilla, that’s apocalyptic. If I had the chance I’d take a bite. But just one, let’s not get too carried away.
Since I was a teenager and that’s going back over twenty years ago now, a pizzadilla has always been simply a quesadilla that is stuffed with your favorite pizza ingredients.
As teenagers you can probably guess we made ours with pepperoni and cheese. And as college students we did the same thing… In our mid-twenties it was pass out food, but it saw the addition of garlic powder because we realized that we were better than that. So yeah, pretty much the same thing.
But it’s still fun as an adult because it’s incredibly easy to make and fast. And with the right ingredients the “pizzadilla” can be an almost guiltless lunch that’s barely over 300 calories, done from scratch in ten minutes.
Now the word quesadilla as you may already know simply means “little cheesy thing” in Spanish. So a quesadilla could technically be a lot of things. I’m not going to argue the furthest point of view here, but after years of work in restaurants that serve quesadillas I would say that a quesadilla is a food that is popular Latin cuisine. It is most commonly made as a flour tortilla topped with cheese and possibly other ingredients, which is then folded and cooked a la plancha. Although I have seen them grilled, or even toasted.
So the “pizzadilla” is simply a hybrid of the Italian pizza and the Latin American quesadilla. Which is AWESOME because I can think of about ten great ideas for a pizzadilla right off the top of my head.
The idea for my “Margherita Pizzadilla” then comes from making a Margherita Pizza into a quesadilla. But what is a Margherita Pizza you might ask? Well, it just so happens that I stay up all night editing Wikipedia like all great nerds do and I can tell you everything you need to know. Or at least the short version, as you will get in this description.
In the late 1800’s, Margherita of Savor was the Queen consort to Umberto I of the Italian Empire. In Italian Margherita means “daisy” in case you were wondering, so her name was “Daisy” by English interpretation. Anyway, to commemorate her the chef Raffaele Esposito served her a pizza which was composed of ingredients which colors matched the flag of Italy; Green, white, and red. He simply used Mozzarella cheese, Roma tomatoes, and Basil leaf. Simple, beautiful, and wonderful aroma and flavors.
The Margherita Pizzadilla is just that. Prep time is 5 minutes, cook time is 5 minutes. Oh and if you don’t have a vegetable chopper, get one! The “Prepworks Onion Chopper” is $20 at Target.
Okay so without further ado let’s get this simple recipe going!
Ingredients:
- 1 medium Flour Tortilla (about an 8″ tortilla)
- 2 ounces of block Mozzarella Cheese (1/2 cup shredded)
- 2 ounces (1/4 cup) diced Roma tomato.
- Hand torn, fresh Basil (2-3 leaves)
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- Pan oil spray
Nutrition Facts:
- Calories: 311
- Total Fat: 16g
- Cholesterol: 40mg
- Sodium: 563mg
- Total Carbohydrates: 27.4g
- Dietary Fiber: 1.7g
- Sugar: 2.6g
- Protein: 17.6g
- Vitamin D: 0%
- Calcium: 45.2%
- Iron: 9.2%
- Potassium: 184.8mg
- Vitamin A: 12%
- Vitamin C: 15.3%
Directions:
- Freshly grate 2 ounces of block Mozzarella cheese (makes 1/2 cup).
- Chop 1 Roma tomato using a vegetable chopper.
- Tear fresh Basil by hand, two to three leaves.
- Spray anodized pan with oil spray and set to medium-low heat.
- Add medium tortilla and rub slightly into oiled anodized pan.
- Add cheese, tomatoes, basil, then garlic powder.
- Fold tortilla in half and remove from heat once crispy brown on the outside.
- Cut into quarters and serve!
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