THE ITALIANISED QUESADILLA

I have that great food writer Elisabeth Luard to thank for this inspiration:  in her book The Latin American Kitchen she gives a quesadilla recipe which uses red peppers and in the UK I used to make a variation using pickled cactus supplied by an American friend, the recipe having been given by Luard in a BBC interview. 

Having wanted to Italianise this recipe for a long time, I decided, for no particular reason, that tonight was to be the night: I had planned to use Sicilian red pesto in the filling but at the last minute discovered that, in my haste in the supermarket, I had picked up the wrong jar and purchased the variety that contains sardines.  As I am allergic to all fish, I couldn't use it. There I was with the oven pre-heated and my tortillas cut so I desperately searched the store cupboard for a substitute. The only item that I thought might do was a jar of sun-dried tomatoes in oil - here we are lucky enough to be able to buy big sun-dried tomatoes cheaply by the kilo and put them in oil ourselves - so, thinking that the result would be OK-ish but not spectacular, I went ahead. And, though I say it myself, the finished sort-of-quesadillas were delicious! Here's what I did:

First, cut each of eight flour tortillas into eight.  [For "real" quesadillas you leave them whole and fold them over but I like my snacky food smaller.]  On half of them, sprinkle some grated grana or parmesan cheese and add a sliver of Emmental or Gruyère.  Dollop a slice of drained sun-dried tomato on top, add a bit of chopped parsley, then place all these slices on a baking tray covered with baking parchment.  Now dampen the edges of the remaining slices and press them on.  [It won't matter if they don't quite stick.]  Brush the tops with olive oil, bake at 180 C for about 7 minutes and Roberto's your uncle! Sprinkle some more grana over the tops while still warm and serve warm or cold.  Ummm - I think I'll go and have another.