Mexican Mini-Pizzas
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This recipe makes a great snack that can double as a meal when you increase the serving size. It's also a great way to use up leftovers of any of the ingredients you may have from Taco Tuesday or that you just have on hand. This is also a base recipe, so feel free to change this up as you like -- diced tomato and bell peppers are great options. You could also go meatless. Just don't go overboard on the toppings. That's a common mistake pizza amateurs make all the time.
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Ingredients
1/2 cup seasoned taco meat
1/2 cup refried beans 1/4 cup water 3 fajita-size flour tortillas 1/4 cup black olives, sliced 1 cup Mexican blend cheese 1 cup shredded lettuce |
Prep Time: 12 minutes
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[Note: Most stores sell a cheese blend containing (at least) cheddar, Monterey Jack, and Asadero cheeses and call it "Mexican" in the name. The variety used here contains no taco seasoning.]
Directions
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In a skillet, prepare the taco meat by first cooking the ground beef. Then add taco seasoning mix and water and stir until sauce thickens.
I use a packaged seasoning mix for convenience, and I really like Mrs. Dash taco seasoning mix. It's a mild variety that isn't too spicy and, best of all, it's salt free. Here you see me cooking 1/2 lb of meat; I made extra for Taco Tuesday (which made three fajita-size soft tacos after I took what I needed for the mini-pizzas). |
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While the beef cooks, combine refried beans and water in a small bowl until well mixed.
This is the "sauce" for your mini-pizzas, so you want to get the right consistency. The optimum ratio of beans to water is 2:1, so keep that in mind if you adjust this recipe to make more than the 3 mini-pizzas shown. Also, I used vegetarian refried beans (something I don't normally do but decided to try since they cost a bit less in the store), and the recipe turned out great. |
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Place tortillas on baking pan and add refried bean "sauce," taco meat, and olives.
The aerated pan really helps with this recipe since the "crust" is so thin. Also, you want to keep the toppings sparse; otherwise, you'll overload your crust. That's even easier to do when your crust as as thin as this is. It won't be able to support everything on to of it, and you'll have a mess eating it with your hands. The secret is to place just enough of each ingredient to give the flavor of what you add and distribute it roughly equally across the surface. |
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Top with cheese and bake at 400ºF for 8 minutes.
Again, you don't want to overload your little pies. A sparse but roughly evenly distributed cheese topping is sufficient. You want just enough to hold everything together, but not so much that the ingredients underneath don't contact the convention current (of circulating air) in the oven when the cheese melts. |
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Remove the mini-pizzas and place on a cooking rack to cool for a 2-3 minutes.
This step is essential. Without the feature provided by the cooling rack, your mini-pizzas will go soggy as they cool. If you don't have a cooling rack, I highly recommend getting one. This is part of the basic minimum equipment for any kitchen. |
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Cut into quarters and garnish with lettuce. Enjoy!
If you think adding some diced tomato with the lettuce sounds good, be careful. It takes a bit of skill to eat these wedges without just the lettuce going everywhere. But the lettuce adds a nice touch to the finished dish. Also, eating just two of these made a nice meal for me, so just one would make a good snack for an afternoon or a party with friends. |
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