The quality of pizzas made with flour tortillas as a crust is a controversial topic. At my Scout troop, tortilla pizzas are remembered with horror as “ghetto pizza” and as an example of low quality cooking on past campouts which has to banned from future campouts so that the boys can learn how to cook real food. On the other hand, Kenji Lopez-Alt of Serious Eats has written about tortilla pizza with great enthusiasm about how good they can be for a very quickly prepared item. Here is his post: Extra-Crispy Bar Style Tortilla Pizza

I have now made tortilla pizzas several times, and I think this is a classic example of how a dish can be tasty or awful depending on how well it is executed.

The Serious Easts posting, and my post here, are much more about technique than a recipe. Here is what has worked well for me, and produces a tasty and quick meal for one person.

Large cast iron frying pan

1 burrito sized flour tortilla

Pizza sauce

Grated mozzarella

Pizza topping (in the photos the topping is anchovies and Kalamata olives.  Other suitable toppings include pepperoni or sliced cooked meatballs.  Not suitable are raw ingredients like raw mushrooms since they will not cook during the short time the pizza is in the oven.)

Olive oil

Preheat the broiler in the oven. Position the oven rack so that the frying pan will be near the broiler.

Get the ingredients together, since once the cooking starts it will go fast. Heat the frying pan on the stove over medium-high heat. When it is hot, put in a small amount of olive in the pan and spread it around. Put the tortilla in the frying pan. It will immediately start crisping up on the bottom from the hot pan. While the tortilla is crisping, add the pizza sauce and spread it over the tortilla. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the sauce. Add the toppings (in this case anchovies and Kalamata olives). Turn off the stove burner, and using pot holders, move the frying pan to the oven putting it on that top oven rack near the broiler. Broil for about 2 minutes and then watch carefully until the top is nicely browned.

Using pot holders, remove the frying pan from the oven, and using a thin metal spatula, remove the pizza from the frying pan onto a cutting board. Cut and serve immediately. If done properly, the tortilla will be crispy and the cheese on the top well melted and browned, all in about 5 minutes.