Artichoke Heart Quesadillas

This has been one of our favorite specialty lunches for years! We serve it to almost every group of visitors to our Idaho cabin and everyone loves it! It’s also a great vegetarian option for any of your non-meat eaters. We first discovered it at Gabe’s Deli in the Nugget Hotel in Reno, Nevada, on one of our lunch breaks during an AAU basketball tournament. I have no idea how they made theirs, but we just use marinated artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, feta, and goat cheese. We always made them as grilled sandwiches, until one day I went to serve them to company and realized I had no bread but had plenty of flour tortillas on hand. Turned out, we like these as quesadillas even better, because you have a higher filling to bread ratio! 

I do realize there are some folks in this culinary world who dislike feta and goat cheese, so you can simply substitute cream cheese and blue cheese if you are happier with those choices! Either way, you will be serving these forever once you start! 

Grilled Artichoke Heart Quesadillas/Sandwiches

Servings 4 7-inch quesadillas

Ingredients

• ▢ PRINT RECIPE
• ▢ 1 cup marinated artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
• ▢ ¼ cup tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes
• ▢ ¼ cup crumbled feta cheese (can substitute blue cheese)
• ▢ 4 ounces chevre (goat cheese – can substitute cream cheese)
• ▢ ¾ cup grated sharp cheddar or Parmesan
• ▢ 8 flour tortillas or slices of your favorite artisan bread
• ▢ ¼ cup olive oil 

Instructions

• Mix artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, and feta in a bowl. Set aside.
• Drizzle half of the olive oil on the griddle and spread to cover the entire surface. Heat over medium heat.
• Place half of the tortillas on a prepared griddle and sprinkle grated cheese evenly to cover each tortilla. Cook until cheese is beginning to melt. 
• Meanwhile, spread goat cheese on the remaining one side of the remaining tortillas. When the cheese is melting on the tortillas on the griddle, spread artichoke heart mixture evenly over the melted cheese.
• Place goat cheese tortillas over artichoke mixture, with the cheese side down. Continue to cook quesadillas until the bottom of the tortilla is a nice golden brown.
  
• Flip and cook the other side to the same golden brown level. 
  
• Serve with Arugula salad and a side dish of mixed Mediterranean olives.
  

Notes

*Can use sliced artisan bread in place of tortillas for a grilled closed faced sandwich, or make open-faced sandwiches by baking in a 425-degree oven until cheese is melted and bubbly and bread is toasted!