This Spaghetti Western is true convenience food. And yet, you can make it all with real food, too. Homemade tortillas, homemade spaghetti sauce, homemade meatballs; this dish can take you hours to make, or you can whip it up in mere minutes. It all depends on your food philosophy or your schedule. You could even adapt it to be gluten free.I love old movies. Black and white, color, I love them all. Except, I don’t particularly like westerns from any era. I think it stems from having to watch Spaghetti Westerns late at night when my parents and I were invited to friends’ houses for dinner. I can remember my parents and other couples would be in the dining room laughing and playing cards while the other children and I would be relegated to the family room. By that late hour, we’d be lying on a couch watching terrible actors trying to be fierce hombres on the television screen, struggling to keep our eyes open until it was time to go home.
My dad would laugh as he came into the room to get me and ask if I saw any airplanes fly across the sky in the movies. Apparently, the quality control of those movies was not what we expect in movies today. I don’t know if I ever actually saw a plane, but Dad said they were there.
To this day, when a western comes on, I get bored within fifteen minutes. My father loves John Wayne, so when we visit the folks, it’s almost a guarantee that he will want to put on one of the legend’s old movies. If I can, I “cut him off at the pass” and beg to watch In Harm’s Way or the Green Berets, or my favorite, The Quiet Man. Luckily, he loves any movie with the Duke, so it usually works. When my husband sees Silverado or Dances with Wolves is on television, however, all I can do is “run for the hills.”
So, today, I am giving you a much better Spaghetti Western. It’s a quesadilla with an Italian filling. They are quick to make, the only time consuming part is slicing the meatballs in half. Flipping them is tricky. I turned them onto a plate and then slid them back into the pan, thereby keeping the filling where it was supposed to be and not all over the pan and stove. The family loved them and clamored for seconds. Lucky for them, there was a BOGO deal on frozen meatballs, so they will see this dish again.
1. Info for Meatball Quesadillas: an edible spaghetti western
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Servings: 4
- Calories: 682kcal
2. Ingredients for Meatball Quesadillas: an edible spaghetti western
- 1 14oz bag frozen meatballs, thawed and cut in half
- 1 24 oz jar spaghetti sauce, any flavor
- 2-3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 10+ flour tortillas
3. Directions:
- Spray a non-stick skillet with vegetable oil spray.
- Place a tortilla in the pan.
- Sprinkle with cheese, then place the meatball halves randomly all over the cheese.
- Spoon on spaghetti sauce, maybe 2 Tbsp per quesadilla.
- Sprinkle with more cheese.
- Top with a second flour tortilla.
- Heat on medium until the bottom tortilla gets crispy.
- Flip the quesadilla onto a plate and then slice the uncooked side face down back into the pan.
- Heat that side until cheese is melted and that side is crispy, too.
- Repeat until everyone is fed.
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