Easy Cheese Quesadillas with Ranchera Sauce

Easy Cheese Quesadillas with Ranchera Sauce are no more complicated than making yourself a grilled cheese sandwich with a simple sauce.

Easy Cheese Quesadillas with Ranchera Sauce
by Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
7.2.14

I guess what sets this one apart is the salsa ranchera. This is a partially cooked sauce that I like to have for my husband as he likes to make huevos rancheros for his breakfast, and that requires a specific kind of sauce, the ranchera sauce. It also works equally well as a very tasty salsa.
There are a lot of really bad recipes out there for ranchera sauce, many of which do not even remotely taste like it. I know, I have tried some of those recipes myself, before I got comfortable in my own skin making any type of salsa besides salsa fresca.
And making good salsa is not complicated either. In this case, the secret weapon is the sauteed onions and peppers, in particular, the poblano.
In a perfect world, I would take the time to blacken the onions and peppers on a comal or over an open fire. In a busy world, they just get sauteed, and allow for the flavor of the fire-roasted tomatoes to hide the shortcut.
Fire-roasted tomatoes are a lot easier to find in the past year or so since a couple of large tomato companies have added this to their line. And really, trust me. If you don’t use the fire-roasted tomatoes, either canned or home made, but instead opt for just regular diced, you will not be as happy. And since I think even Wal-Mart carries the stuff everywhere and it is also available for sale online, you are in luck, no matter what hidden corner of the world you cook.
Enjoy this great sauce on an easy lunch or appetizer. And you can go further and make your quesadillas with meat, whatever have you. You will still love the sauce.
~Sue

Salsa Ranchera

Easy Cheese Quesadillas with Ranchera Sauce

Servings: 4-6
Time: 20mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients for Ranchera Sauce:

14 ounces diced fire roasted tomatoes
Pinch ground cumin
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 medium onion
2 to 4 cloves garlic
2 fresh serrano or jalapeno chiles, stemmed and seeded
1 poblano chile, seeded and stemmed
Salt and pepper

For Quesadillas:

4-6 large flour tortillas
1 to 1-1/2 cups grated or crumbled cotija cheese (or other melting cheese)
1 cup sour cream (optional)

Method:

Saute onion, garlic, serranos, poblano pepper in olive oil until softened.
Cool mixture enough to process in a food processor with the fire roasted tomatoes (and their juice), ground cumin, salt and black pepper, pulsing mixture a few times to get a “chunky salsa” consistency.
Take flour tortillas, and place on a heated griddle.
Sprinkle grated cotija or other melting cheese on one half of the tortilla, then fold the top over and brown on both sides as you would grilled cheese.
Serve quesadillas cut into wedges with a pizza cutter, along with dallops of ranchera sauce and sour cream.

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