taco bell style pizza
Despite having eaten at some of the best restaurants all over the world, one of my grandmother’s favorite restaurants was taco belle. No joke.
We would make a regular girls lunch out of it— mops, mom and I— drive thru the old taco bell on la jolla blvd, and drive down to the little park bench at the end of camino de la costa and chelsea and sit by the water to eat.
Without fail, her favorite menu item was the taco bell pizza. I liked to very between tacos, nachos and pizza, but she always got the pizza.
If you haven’t had the taco bell pizza, a) go to your nearest taco bell and order one immediately and b) why not? It’s this distinct concoction made up of crispy flour tortillas, stuffed with beans and beef, smothered in a red enchilada sauce, and topped with cheese, olives, tomatoes and scallions (I add avocados, cause california).
As you know, we celebrate taco tuesday over here religiously. It’s my kid’s favorite meal day of the week, and they are always curious as to what type of taco we’ll be having that evening, since I switch it up on the regular.
This year, national pizza day fell on a tuesday, so I thought it was the right time, to try out my own version of the taco bell pizza. And let me tell you… it. did. not. disappoint. Not one little bit.
In fact, it turned out even better that I thought, because just like a regular taco bar, I could customize each pizza to the individual eating it. Vegetarian? Leave out the meat. Don’t eat dairy, skip the cheese. Don’t like beans? Don’t need ‘em. And top that sucker with whatever you want… it’s your pizza.
But the original version? Was eaten with gusto. And the taco bell style pizza? Will now be added to the regular taco tuesday rotation.
Ingredients:
12 taco sized flour tortillas
avocado oil, enough to cover 1/4 inch up the sides of a medium frying pan
1 can of refried beans, heated for a minute and stirred
2 lbs of ground beef, cooked and seasoned with your favorite taco seasoning, or a combo of salt, pepper, cumin, onion salt and paprika
3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
1 can of black olives, sliced
1/2 bunch scallions, sliced
1 tomato, chopped
1 avocado, chopped
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Line two baking trays with tin foil.
Heat avocado oil on medium high heat in a medium sized frying pan. When oil heats up, add tortillas one at a time to the pan, flipping after about 30 seconds per side - enough to crisp up tortillas and for them to turn slightly golden.
Remove tortillas and place on paper towels to dry.
Place three tortillas on each baking sheet.
Spread warmed beans carefully, so you don’t crack the tortilla, on top of each of the six tortillas. Sprinkle cooked and warmed ground beef over the beans on each tortilla.
Top the beef with the remaining six tortillas. Spoon a healthy ladle of enchilada sauce over each pizza. Top with shredded cheese.
Sprinkle tomatoes, olives, scallions, and avocados over the top of the cheese.
Place the pans in the oven, in the middle rack.
Bake for 5-10 minutes, enough to heat pizza’s through, and to melt cheese. Checking repeatedly to make sure they don’t burn. Since all your cooked ingredients should be warm, this process won’t take very long.
Using a pizza cutter, slice each pizza into quarters and serve.
Makes 6 individual pizzas.