Pepperoni Pizza Taquitos

Holy cow! I married two concepts, Mexican taquitos and Italian pizza, and the result was amazing! Corn tortillas, perfectly toasted, filled with cheese and pepperoni, dunked in marinara. Finger food fusion at it finest.

How perfect are these taquitos for game day and holiday parties? Two of your crowd's favorite nibbles in ONE BITE! I made a huge batch of these and they were devoured in just minutes. As in, I turned around for one minute and when I looked back, I just had a pan to clean.

Think about the variations you can make to this recipe. I kept things simple with pepperoni and cheese (plus, it's everyone's top pick), but I could have added bell peppers, mushrooms, black olives, and so on. Next time, I'll clean out my fridge!

What's also super cool about this recipe is the fact that the corn tortillas DON'T CRACK! You know what I mean. It's hard to prevent corn tortillas from cracking when you roll them - and it's such a waste of food. So... for this recipe, the tortillas are warmed on a griddle, with cheese on top. This technique does double duty: it melts the cheese AND softens the tortillas so they roll up without cracking.

Oh, and these are GLUTEN-FREE! Swap in veggies for the pepperoni and they can be vegetarian too!

If you want to keep the taquitos warm before serving, transfer them to a parchment- or foil-lined baking sheet and keep them in a 200-degree oven for up to 30 minutes.

Pepperoni Pizza Taquitos
I made 12 taquitos in this recipe. You can easily double or triple the recipe for a party. 

Cooking spray
12 street taco-size corn tortillas
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
36 slices pepperoni
Marinara or pizza sauce for dunking, warmed

Coat a stove-top griddle or grill pan with cooking spray and preheat to medium. Arrange the tortillas on the hot pan and top with the cheese, about 2 tablespoons of cheese per tortilla (there's no science to this; just use up the cheese). Top the cheese with the pepperoni slices; arranging 3 slices down the center of each tortilla.
When the cheese has melted, roll up the tortillas and arrange them, seam-side down, on a serving platter (if they're too hot to roll on the griddle, transfer them to a cutting board and roll them when they're cool enough to handle - just don't wait too long). See note above if you want to keep the taquitos warm before serving.
Serve the taquitos with the warm marinara or pizza sauce for dunking.
Makes 12 taquitos; serves 4-6