Sausage & Apple Quesadilla

My family isn't a huge fan of sweets. Don't get me wrong: an occasional sugar bomb isn't out of the question for me. (And cupcakes. Uf. Can't resist!) But we generally prefer savory foods, and when I'm baking, I tend to alter the recipe by taking out some of the suggested sugar amount.

So my mom tends to stick with the savory food when she's cooking, and I predict that I'll do much of the same... unless the sweet is mixed with savory. I'm talking about there being a bowl of grapes set aside on one side of the counter, and a bowl of short ribs on the other. I will gladly alternate between the two.

One combination that has always piqued my interest is sausage and apple. I'm not even sure that I've had those two together before today, but in any case, I decided to cook up a sausage and apple quesadilla for brunch just to see if it was as good as I had hoped it would be.

¡Que sabrosa! So tasty.

Admittedly, it is rather unwieldy for a quesadilla... requiring knife and fork (or in my case, a knife, chopsticks, and hands). But hey, I was hungry!

So here you have it, a big tasty quesadilla that's easy enough for noobs like me.

INGREDIENTS
1/4 to 1/2 apple *
spicy Italian sausage **
shredded cheese ***
1 flour (or corn) tortilla

* I used a Gala apple
** I used about a 1:1 ratio of sausage to apple, but it shouldn't matter as long as it tastes good to you!
*** I used Colby Jack

The sausage isn't pictured above in the ingredients photo because alas! it was already cooking on the stove before I remembered that I needed my camera!

Take the sausage out of its casing, breaking it down into smaller pieces, and brown it in a nonstick pan on low to medium heat. The oil from the sausage should be enough, especially with the spicy sausage I was using. (Though I'm sure a little olive oil won't hurt if you want to use some!)

Meanwhile, with the sausage happily cooking away, peel and cut your apple. I'm really not so good at peeling apples yet. (Still afraid of the knife!)

When all the sausage pieces look slightly browned, add in your apples. I wanted mine to be somewhere in between crunchy and soft, so I let them cook with the sausage for a couple of minutes, stirring to make sure none of the sausage was still pink.

When the sausage and apple mixture is cooked sufficiently to your taste, empty it out into a bowl and set aside.

Lay your tortilla in the pan and sprinkle some cheese on it. (There was enough leftover oil from the sausages that I didn't need to add any extra olive oil, but use your judgement!)

When the cheese starts to look a little melted, add in your sausage and apples.

Add some more cheese on top, which will help the quesadilla stick together when you fold the tortilla in half. (I probably should have added more cheese.)

Fold the tortilla in half. I had a little too much filling, so it got a little messy with this step. (Apples overboard!) Alternately, you could distribute the sausage and egg evenly across the whole tortilla, and then lay another tortilla on top. I only wanted one tortilla though, so I got a very corpulent quesadilla.

Slice it up into manageably-sized pieces, and it's time to chow down! (Did I really just type 'chow down?' I don't even know myself right now.)

How do you like dem apples? (Sorry. Sorry, I couldn't resist!)

(Afterwards, I cooked up the rest of the three sausages and half an apple and stored them in the fridge for even quicker quesadillas next time!)

Do you happen to like any food combinations that initially sound strange? (My mom thought the sausage and apple might not turn out tasty, but aha! I liked it!)

Anyways, hope you enjoy your quesadilla if you decide to try this out!