(Semi) Cuban Quesadillas

I’m calling these “semi” Cuban because I know my Blogmate, (is that a word? It is now.) Emily, is a big fan of Cuban sandwiches, and these are definitely not authentically Cuban. I don’t want Emily coming after me Cuban-style. That wouldn’t end well. So anyway, these are in the style of Cuban sandwiches, just in a quesadilla form and I found the recipe on a blog called Culinary Colleen. The ingredients are simple, a tasty marinated pork, whole grain mustard, pickled jalapenos, Gruyere cheese and prosciutto. My husband, who is also a Cuban sandwich fan, liked these a lot, particularly the pork, which was flavorful and citrusy. For me… I’m not sure it’s a flavor combination that is totally in my wheelhouse, but that’s certainly not to say it wouldn’t be in yours.

Ingredients

4 cloves garlic minced

Juice of 2 limes

Juice of 1 large orange

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. coarse salt

1 tsp. fresh black pepper

1.5 pounds pork tenderloin

2 Tbsp. olive oil

4 flour tortillas

4 slices prosciutto

4 oz. grated gruyere cheese

Pickled jalapenos

Mustard

Start with your marinade. Mix your garlic, lime juice, orange juice, cumin, salt and pepper in a gallon freezer bag (or your favorite marinating dish). Add in your pork and marinate for up to 4 hours. We actually couldn’t find a pork tenderloin that would be reasonable for two people, so we just got thinly sliced pork chops on the bone and marinated those. If you go with a thinner sliced pork, you don’t need to marinate it for quite as long.

Heat your oil in a skillet over medium high heat and then brown the pork on all sides, which should only take a few minutes. Then cook in on a broiler pan at 350 degrees. A tenderloin should take about 20 minutes or so. Ours was done in ten. Slice the pork into quesadilla size slices.

Now, to assemble your quesadilla. Do NOT do what I did and think you can save time by making a two tortilla quesadilla. It just doesn’t hold together at all. The easiest way is to use one tortilla and fold it over. For some reason, this method held it all together much better. So fill half the tortilla with pork, cover it with a slice of prosciutto, a good number of pickled jalapenos (spread them out) and a sprinkling of Gruyere. For some reason, the only Gruyere I can find is smoked, which I do not like. So I used Gruyere for my husband but sharp white cheddar for myself. Anyway, spread the other half of the quesadilla with some nice mustard, and then fold over.

Heat your skillet (which you’ve wiped out since browning the pork), and put in the quesadilla with the cheese side down. I find that this melts the cheese faster and helps the whole thing hold together better. Cook until the cheese is melted and both sides are nice and browned (usually about 3-4 minutes a side). Then slice your quesadilla in half and serve! It may be only semi Cuban, but it’s wholly delish!