Sweet Corn and Zucchini Quesadilla

As I mentioned last week, I held an Oscars fiesta in order to go through some of the Mexican staple ingredients by uncle gifted me in December. Because every good fiesta has to have a quesadilla, I opted to try one of my friend Nick's creations from his blog www.Macheesmo.com.

Quesadillas are very easy to make, even without a quesadilla maker. The hardest part of this was finding one of the ingredients: Cotija cheese. This shouldn't be such a difficult task in my neighborhood which boasts a large Latino population, but it was buried in the back of the cheese section at my local Giant. And it wasn't cheap. But dang it's good.

Sweet Corn and Zucchini Quesadilla (makes 2)

 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sweet corn, fresh or frozen     
• 1/2 small zucchini, chopped thin  
• 1/2 poblano pepper, seeded and diced  
• Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes  
• Pinch of fresh thyme (or dried)  
• Pinch of salt and pepper  
• 1 TB oil or butter  
• 3-4 oz. pepper jack cheese  
• 2 oz. Cotija Cheese, grated  
• Flour tortillas  
• Optional toppings: Guacamole, salsa, sour cream, etc. 

Directions:

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Chop zucchini and peppers. If you're using corn on the cob, (which I did not), cut the corn of the cob.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add corn, zucchini, and peppers to pan and cook for a few minutes until veggies are hot and slightly tender.

Add in thyme, red pepper flakes, and a pinch of salt and pepper.

On a baking sheet, lay out a flour tortilla. Add a small handful of pepper jack cheese to half of the tortilla.

Add half of the filling and top with more pepper jack cheese. Sprinkle on some Cotija cheese if you want as well.

Fold tortilla over and press it down well. Bake for about 8 minutes per side. It's actually pretty easy to flip these with a nice sized spatula.

Cut up and serve with salsa, sour cream, and guacamole.