Cheesy Tortillas

With its rich sauce and creamy cheese filling, this is an original and appealing way of serving tortillas.

Vegetarian. Hands-on time: 15 mins. Total time: 55 mins.

Contributed by Moira Adams (March 2003).

A vacuum pack of tortillas is a great store-cupboard item. This recipe is particularly tasty, and not at all difficult to make.

You can use any kind of soft cheese that you like for the filling, but I have specified ricotta as it has only half the fat of normal cream cheese. You can cut the cholesterol even more by using low-fat yogurt. But in any case, this dish will be lower in fat than most traditional meat-based tortilla recipes.

You will need a flat oven dish or roasting tin, just large enough to hold the rolled-up tortillas side by side. For eight tortillas, I use two 8 x 8 inch (20 x 20 cm) dishes.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp. oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large bell pepper, chopped
• 6 - 8 medium mushrooms, cut into slices
• Two 14-oz (400 g) cans of tomato
• Fresh or dried herbs to taste
• 1¼ cups (9 oz, 250 g) ricotta or other soft cheese
• 1½ cups (3 oz, 75 g) hard cheese, finely grated
• 1¼ cups (10 fl oz, 300 ml) yogurt
• ¼ tsp. paprika
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Pack of 8 tortillas

Method

Oven: Pre-heat to 325F (170C)

First, make the sauce. Sauté the onions for about five minutes in the oil. Add the pepper and mushrooms; cook for a few more minutes. Add the tomato and herbs and continue cooking for about five minutes.

In a separate bowl, mix the cheeses, yogurt, paprika and garlic.

Pour about a third of the onion and tomato sauce into the oven dish or roasting tin.

Take each tortilla in turn. Lay it flat, and spread one eighth of the cheese mixture over one side. Roll up the tortilla and place it seam down in the dish. Pour over the remaining sauce.

Loosely cover the dish with kitchen foil. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes.

Note on quantities and temperatures:
Quantities are given in American (cups), imperial (oz, fl oz) and metric (g, ml) units. Do not mix the units - use one or other system throughout the recipe.
See also How much does a cup weigh?
oz = ounces, fl oz = fluid ounces, g = grams, ml = milliliters, tsp = teaspoons, tbsp = tablespoons.
Oven temperatures are given in degrees F (Fahrenheit) and C (Celsius).
For fan-assisted ovens, reduce the temperature by 20F or 10C.