Queso means cheese in Spanish and dilla means — I have no idea, actually — but together they make quesadilla, Mexican soft flour tortillas or wraps that you can fill with cheese and anything you like, heat in a pan, and have on the table in five minutes flat.

There are certain occasions when that is convenient, particularly when you have been out and about and arrive home feeling hungry.

If you keep a pack of flour tortillas in the cupboard (they seem to last for ever) and some cheese in the fridge, it is even easier.

You can find flour tortillas, often just called wraps, at big supermarkets.

Ignore the packet instructions that say to fry them in oil — they are much nicer cooked in a dry frying pan.

You can fill them with Mexican refried beans (fry canned red kidney beans with onion, cayenne pepper and ground cumin, and mash them to a paste) and scatter with grated cheddar cheese and hot chilli salsa.

Or leave the Mexican theme behind and do my cheat’s version of an Italian piadina sandwich. Brush a tortilla with a little tomato purée, arrange sliced fresh mozzarella cheese and prosciutto on top, scatter with a few rocket leaves and top with another tortilla.

Heat it in a dry frying pan until lightly golden on the outside and hot and oozy inside, turning once.

And the following method, sandwiching the tortillas with creamy goat’s cheese and wilted spinach, makes a fast meal that is anything but fast food.

Ingredients
Serves 4

Prep: 10 min
Cook: 5 min each

250g spinach leaves
250g fresh young goat's cheese
8 flour tortillas
Sea salt and pepper
1 advocado
1-2 tbsp lime juice
2tbsp roughly chopped fresh coriander leaves



METHOD

Cook the spinach briefly in simmering salted water until wilted. Drain well and squeeze dry. Spread one flour tortilla with a quarter of the goat’s cheese and scatter with a quarter of the wilted spinach, sea salt and pepper.

Place the tortilla, topping-side up, in a dry non-stick frying pan and top with another flour tortilla to form a round sandwich, pressing down lightly. Cook over medium heat until it is lightly golden.

Turn once, and cook the other side until lightly golden. Transfer to a board, cut into quarters, and arrange on a warm serving plate. Repeat to make three more quesadillas.

Peel, stone and roughly chop the avocado. Toss with lime juice, coriander, sea salt and pepper, and serve with the quesadilla, which is best eaten with the fingers.

jill.dupleix@thetimes.co.uk

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