Stop by Jonathan’s free cooking demonstrations at Eastern Market on Saturday mornings to learn more and to pick up more free recipes using fresh market ingredients.
Summer is the time to party and quesadillas are one of my favorite ways to serve a crowd. Starting with tortillas and cheese, you can fill with anything farm-fresh and delicious. Developing new recipes every week, I’m always trying new flavors with traditional dishes, and these peach and sausage quesadillas will get your guests talking.
Sugary summer peaches balance with rich pork sausage and warm cumin, bright Chinese Five Spice powder and a splash of soy. These quesadillas are an instant party. They’re at their best with Asian Pork Barbecue sausages from Eastern Market’s Canales Quality Meats and fresh tortillas from Canales Deli.
Ignore the suggested servings for this recipe, because your friends and family will be eating twice as many. Here’s a quick top for slicing all of those quesadillas: use a pizza cutter instead of a knife. A knife always pushes your quesadilla fillings out the sides, while a pizza cutter slices right through.
Ingredients:
- 6 tbs olive oil
- 3 large pork sausage links*
- 1 tsp Chinese Five Spice powder
- 1 tbs soy sauce
- 1 red onion, diced
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- 10 6” corn tortillas
- 2 ½cups grated Cheddar cheese
- 3 peaches, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup chopped basil
*Try these with Asian Pork Barbecue Sausages from Canales Quality Meatsand leave out the five spice.
Directions:
- Warm 1 tbs olive oil in a 10” skillet over medium-high heat. Remove the sausage from the casings and add to pan with Chinese 5 Spice power and soy sauce.
- Breaking up the sausage as it cooks, sauté until browned and cooked through.
- Remove sausage from pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- Add onion to pan and sauté until softened and edges begin to brown. If pan is dry, add 1 tbs olive oil.
- Stir in cumin and season to taste with salt and pepper
- To assemble quesadillas, layer one corn tortilla with 1/4 cup cheese, cooked sausage, peach slices, onions and basil. Top with another 1/4 cup cheese and a second tortilla. Repeat with remaining ingredients to make 5 quesadillas.
- Fry each quesadillas in 1 tbs oil over medium heat, about 3 minutes per side, turning once when the tortilla begins to brown in spots With a pizza cutter, slice into wedges and serve.