Grandpa Gotta Cook—Taco Pizza

It's Been A While

Yes, it has. And actually, I could have posted this edition of Grandpa Gotta Cook sooner, but I decided to wait so I could use the Friday Food Fight tag.

Let's Get This Party Started

I think I have established now that when it comes to my turn to cook, I usually don't really think about it until the day of, and sometimes only hours before. That doesn't always work out for the best, but eventually it does work out. This time around, though, for some variety, I guess, I did know from a day or so ahead of time what I wanted to try, and it was something I'd been wanting for a while.

Taco Pizza

Now, there are plenty of ways to make such a thing, some which actually includes a crust and some taco related ingredients. In my case, I wanted to get a little more taco and a little less pizza. Hopefully, that becomes abundantly clear as we walk through this together.

To prepare this meal, I began with the meat, one pound of ground beef. This taco pizza idea plays off variations on a theme, which we generally start out calling American Tacos, then going to Taco Salad and once in a while a taco dish that you eat more as a dip with tortilla chips. Generally, the same ingredients are used, the final dish just ends up in a different form.

Once the meat was cooking, it was time to get some tomatoes, olives and lettuce ready. Wait?! No mushrooms and bell pepper? Sadly, no. I'm not sure when the mushrooms would ever fit, but I suppose if this were a fajita pizza or something like that, the bell pepper would have worked.

Along with the veggies, there would also be available some cheese, sour cream and salsa. My wife normally makes her own salsa, but I figured we could use the jar of peach salsa I bought for another meal a while back since there was still plenty left of it.

With the add ons ready to go, the taco meat seasoning came next. We have McCormick's, but whatever taco seasoning you prefer I say go for it. Just make sure to read the instructions properly. Other members of my household have actually reversed the seasoning to water ratio. Can you say, "Gag me with a spoon?" I knew you could!

Once that mixture was on the meat and simmering, I turned my attention to the refried black beans. My preference would be to have my wife cook up some of hers, but it's time consuming and not really necessary if you have a perfectly good can of premade refried beans on hand. I'm just not a fan of the color and texture right out of the can. Fortunately, things get better once it's all warmed up.

Now, having alluded to wanting more of a TACO pizza rather than a taco PIZZA, there was a pretty important decision or two to make. One was, did I really want to use tortillas (yes, I did), and two, did I really want to put the toppings on the outside of the tortilla rather than on the inside.

Bet you didn't know there was an outside and inside of a tortilla, did you?

Well, in this case, there would be. The plan was, have a 'crust' with mozzarella cheese in the middle, which is effectively, a quesadilla. I figured that would add some needed sturdiness to the tortilla crust, and also some additional flavor.

Once the cheese was melted and the tortillas a little less flexible, beans were smeared on top and then the season ground beef.

From the start, I was concerned how this might be eaten without making a mess. Keeping the now quesadilla base in one piece was an option, but I was afraid that still wasn't sturdy enough to support the topics like a normal pizza crust would. My solution: cut the quesadilla into quarters. I figured if that didn't work out ideally, that at least each individual could be folded and eaten New York Pizza style.

That meant the only thing left to do was throw on the rest of the ingredients. Since not everyone in the household eats all the same toppings (it's so complicated sometimes), I figured I just leave the rest of the stuff to taste. What you see below is what I prepared for myself, with all of the fixings.

The All Important Taste Test

I liked it. Strangely enough, though, if I were to do it again, I would not include the quesadilla part. Not sure what else I'm going to do, but the mozzarella flavor, I thought, detracted from the taco part.

My youngest son and his wife both said they enjoyed it, with their usual degrees of enthusiasm, so I'm going to claim it as a hit and worthy of trying again.

The wife? Well, she ate it, which I take as a good sign.

_{All images by Glen Anthony Albrethsen}