Quesadilla Pie Recipe

Brush butter on the bottom of the pan to keep the tortillas from sticking, and to the top of the last tortilla for flavor and to help it brown. Hint: do not skip the butter.
Ingredients

Basic ingredients:

* 4 large flour tortillas (9-10 inches diameter)
* Butter
* 1/2 pound grated cheese, either mild or sharp cheddar, or Monterey Jack

Potential filling ingredients:

* Beans, cooked (black beans, pinto beans)
* Tomatoes, chopped
* Summer squash, chopped
* Onions (green onions, red onions, onion greens)
* Mushrooms (if using a lot, sauté first, to remove moisture)
* Cooked shredded chicken, pork, or beef
* Chiles, either from cooked green chiles, chopped pickled jalapenos, or salsa
* Cumin and/or chili powder for extra heat

Garnishes:

* Chopped avocado
* Chopped cilantro
* Thinly sliced iceberg lettuce dressed with vinegar and salt
* Sour cream
* Salsa

Method

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter the bottoms and sides of a pie dish, approximately the same size as your tortillas (I used a 10-inch pyrex pie dish for 10-inch wide tortillas).

2 Place one tortilla on the bottom of the pie dish. Sprinkle some shredded cheese over the tortilla. At this point, you will begin to add your chosen filling ingredients, and layering the tortillas. Just make sure each layer has a generous sprinkling of cheese. In the pictured example, I used cheese, black beans, and onion greens on the first layer. Then I added another tortilla on top of that and put chopped zucchini, chopped tomato, chopped pickled jalapenos, and more shredded cheese. I also sprinkled a little cumin and chili powder on this layer. I added another tortilla and put more shredded cheese, more black beans, tomatoes and onions. Top off your layers with one last flour tortilla. Spread a little butter over the surface of this tortilla.

3 Cover the dish with aluminum foil. Put in oven for 30 minutes on 350°F. Then remove the foil and increase the heat to 400°F. Cook for another 15-20 minutes, until the top is lightly browned and cheese is bubbly. Remove from oven. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving. Cut into quarters.

Serve with chopped avocados, shredded lettuce, cilantro, salsa, and/or sour cream.

Serves 4.