My college days are long past. And they were never really that crazy to begin with. But recall being young: You've stayed up late, probably had like three too many, you're hungry but capable of making only the most basic foods.
If you're in that (altered) state of mind, then this viral TikTok recipe(opens in a new tab) for a tortilla pizza is pure gold. It is perfect trash, drunk food, and I mean that as a compliment. The video, posted to TikTok by @adriannamagnone(opens in a new tab), racked up more than 10 million views.
It's seemingly aimed at low-carb dieters — swapping tortillas for crust — but really it's best to think of this as a cheap, gooey, fatty, simple meal. It is not healthy or really even that tasty. But it's somehow still good. One of those things you kind of hate yourself for loving.
Anyway, here's what you need to know to make the recipe.
Ingredients
2 flour tortillas
Shredded mozzarella cheese, roughly 1 cup
1 clove of garlic, minced
Olive oil, roughly a tablespoon
Jarred marinara or pizza sauce, roughly 1/4 cup
Italian seasoning
Directions
Lay one tortilla into your air fryer basket.
Brush the tortilla with oil and garlic.
Drop about half the cheese on top of the tortilla then top with the other tortilla.
Brush the top tortilla with pizza sauce.
Top the sauced tortilla with the other half of the cheese.
Sprinkle Italian seasoning over the tortilla pizza.
Air fry at 400 degrees for about six minutes. Enjoy!
Here's how the process looked for @adriannamagnone(opens in a new tab).
The details
This is simple stuff. Much like other TikTok air fryer recipes, it's a quick, hacky recipe. The only real change I'd suggest is that you add your minced garlic directly into the oil, that way you brush the tortilla with garlic and oil all at once. To be honest, neither the oil or the garlic was really even all that necessary, so if you want to skip that step entirely, it's totally cool. You'll just miss out on the slight garlic bread vibe.
Otherwise this recipe is impossible to mess up. Make a quesadilla in your air fryer. Top it with sauce. Then drop on more cheese, some herbs, and air fry.
The end product is pretty similar to a fast-food, thin-crust pizza. Think Domino's at 1 a.m. The tortillas are cracker-thin and crisp, the cheese is overflowing, the sauce, because it's store-bought, is almost assuredly too sweet. You get the vibe of eating pizza while also knowing you are actually eating an abomination. I imagine it'd be perfect for me at 21 after guzzling about a half-dozen Natty Bo's(opens in a new tab). It'd probably also be great for kids, because drunk people and children have a similar palate.
But, even while dead sober in the middle of the day, I was pretty surprised how much I liked this recipe. Sure, it's basic. But what is there to dislike about melty cheese and crispy tortillas? I even liked that the six minutes of cook time burned the top layer of cheese a bit. It really reminded me of nostalgic, not great pizza you'd get at a kids' birthday party. Here's what my final product looked like. It was pretty identical to the source material.
I'm not saying this recipe will soon make its way into my dinner rotation like other AirFryDay recipes — my chicken sandwich and wings recipes come to mind — but it really isn't bad. Who knows? Maybe one day I'll feel less...old...and hit the bars. I'll get home at 1 a.m. and all I'll have is some tortillas, sauce, and cheese. And I'll know exactly what to make.
