College Food - Tortilla Pizza

Lately, I have been spending lots of quality time with my mother and she reminded me of really neat food she makes for herself on occasion. Several years ago, I was over at my mother’s house helping with household chores and she invited me to stay for lunch and being that she is a great cook in her own right, I said yes. She proceeded to make these little tortilla pizzas in about 10-12 minutes. These are not Mexican pizzas. They are pizzas made with tortillas as the crust. You can put just about any topping that you like on a pizza. Here is the resulting creation.

Ingredients Serves 2-4

4 eight inch flour tortillas

4 ounce jar of sundried tomato pesto

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

6 - 8 slices of pepperoni (optional)

4-6 fresh mushrooms sliced thinly, canned ones are a good substitute, just dry them thoroughly (optional)

6-8 thinly sliced olives (optional)

1/8 cup of chopped bell peppers (optional)

Preparation (10-12 total preparation and cook time)

Heat your oven to 450 and place a rack on the bottom of the oven. We are using my mother’s toaster oven. Set up your cutting board with a towel and chop up any of your desired toppings such as bell peppers, mushrooms and/or olives.

Lay the tortilla on the cutting board or on a round pizza pan. Use a brush to spread out a tablespoon or two of tomato pesto. If you don’t have a brush, use a spoon to spread on the pesto on the tortilla. Make sure to spread the pesto uniformly around the pizza with about 1/8 inch from the edge.

Brushing the tomato pesto on the tortilla

Add a little bit of cheese on top of the tomato pesto. Be careful to not add too much here. The purpose of adding this cheese here is to help toppings stick to the pizza.

Adding cheese on top of the tomato pesto

Add pepperoni by distributing evenly.

Adding pepperoni to the pizza

Add peppers, mushrooms and/or olives by spreading them evenly around the pizza.

Adding the yellow bell pepper

Adding red bell pepper, but it could be mushrooms and/or olives

Sprinkle the cheese pretty liberally over the top. Be careful not to pile it on top.

Spreading cheese on top of the pizza

Place in the oven for 5-7 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden brown. The more toppings that you add will require longer cook time.

Sliding cooked pizza onto the cutting board

Cut pizza into quarters.

Cutting pizza

Finished pizza with pepperoni, bell peppers and cheese

Finished pizza with mushrooms

Finished pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, bell peppers and cheese

Bon Appetit!