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If you bake a layer of Parmesan cheese in the oven it will crackle and pop after a while, turning into a crispy, cheese cracker that’s much tastier than any pizza crust I’ve encountered. I topped this baked cheese crisp  (which is a popular dish called Frico in Italy) with pizza spices and toppings before sliding it into the oven. The results: crustless pizza!
Bake a little sunshine into your life with these bright and happy two-ingredient pizza flavored cheese crisps.
Make this Sonoran-Style Mexican chicken tortilla soup from the Taste of Tucson cookbook in 30 minutes or less!
Festive enough for New Year’s Eve, this pretty appetizer only takes about 5 minutes to make. Bacon infused caviar adds a unique smokiness that will intrigue your guests and is fairly inexpensive, but any decent quality caviar will do. The one-ingredient parmesan crisps are a savory, no-carb alternative to blini.
Crispy tofu adds just the right amount of heft and bite to Chile Colorado served on crunchy baked tostada shells.
Molletes are open-faced breakfast sandwiches made by slathering refried beans onto toasted bolillo rolls and then heaping avocado slices, a fried egg, hot sauce, and lots of cheese on top.
Sweet bell peppers stuffed with creamy nacho cheese, avocado, pickled jalapeños, black beans and crunchy tortilla chips.
Teresa Matias told me that to help satisfy her children’s cries for burgers when buns weren’t handy, she would fold a hamburger patty into a tortilla and fry it. Topped with cheese, lettuce, and tomato, it later became a regular menu item at her restaurant, Teresa’s Mosaic Cafe. Apparently, a lot of moms had the same experience, because the beef patty taco has been standard restaurant fare around southern Arizona since at least the mid-1970s.
Chiltepin salsa is an all-purpose salsa that can be used for dipping, for seasoning, and as a taco sauce. A little goes a long way, so if you prefer a milder salsa, cut the amount of chiles down by a half or a third. This recipe is from the Taste of Tucson cookbook by Jackie Alpers.
This crispy matzoh based breakfast is a cross between molletes and huevos rancheros. I used beans from a can and my homemade chiltepin salsa.
Nuttier and less sweet than its chocolate based cousin, this version of Molé Amarillo is the personal creation of Chef Suzana Davila of Tucson’s Cafe Poca Cosa. She specializes in these complex sauces, and her recipes are longtime local favorites which is one reason why I wanted to feature the recipe in my upcoming cookbook Taste of Tucson: Sonoran Style Recipes Inspired by the Rich Culture of Southern Arizona. Serve this dish with tortillas and a pretty, salad, as Suzana would.Â
My Sonoran style grilled chicken is made with sweet Hungarian smoked paprika mixed with hot New Mexico chili pepper, some ground unsweetened chocolate (inspired by molés), and a good California red wine blend. Healthy chickens are happy chickens. Look for free range, organic chickens who were raised without added hormones.
Making authentic cowboy steaks is really easy. When I asked Bryan Keith, the Grill Master from Pinnacle Peak Steak House if he had any additional tips he said, “Put some love in it!”
The Moist Maker Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich inspired by the classic episode of Friends, “The One Where Ross Loses it Over a Sandwich,” is made with a dinner roll soaked in gravy in the center, leftover turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, proving that Monica is a culinary genius.Â
Recipe for Shakshuka made with leftover Thanksgiving stuffing. Be sure to make extra-extra stuffing for Thanksgiving so that you can make my Skillet Stuffing Shakshuka the next morning with the “leftovers”
This spooky spaghetti carbonara with mushrooms is elegant enough for a Halloween themed adult dinner party.
Walnuts taste even better in pesto than pine nuts. Spinach linguine keeps this easy pasta recipe a lovely shade of green.
A modern, flavor-packed, one-pot tuna noodle casserole recipe made with healthy ingredients.
Whatever happened to Rumaki, the Polynesian appetizer served at tiki parties in the 70s? Maybe buffalo-style rumaki will help bring it back.
I marinated myself a flank steak using my mom’s recipe from the 80s, adding in some Mexican oregano and extra citrus to #sonoranize it a bit so now it’s an Ohio meets Tucson recipe.
This no-recipe recipe is my tribute dog to Sweathog, Vinnie Barbarino. This recipe has become very popular since I first created it for my monthly column on the FoodNetwork.com. The people of the Internet have spoken, and they have said that it’s a cross between a pizza and a hot dog, and that is not untrue.
A creamy, warm, vegetarian layered dip that tastes like lasagna. This recipe is loaded with cheese. Serve with fresh veggies.
I’m pretty sure I invented the Elote Dog when I first developed this recipe for The Food Network in 2018. Since then Elote Hot Dogs, inspired by Sonoran-Mexican Street Corn have become a sensation with hot dog enthusiasts all over the word coming up with their own version. Here’s my recipe for hot dogs topped with elote, mayo, lime and spices and served in a bolillo roll.
Spicy Ranch French Onion Dip. Two Dips That Live As One, Together At Last!Â
The cheese crisp is the perfect comfort food. A cross between a Mexican pizza an an open-faced quesadilla, Southern Arizona restaurants started selling the dish more than 50 years ago and it’s become a staple of our local Sonoran style cuisine.Â
Healthy burrito bowl recipe with quinoa, black beans and avocado tossed in a chipotle lime vinaigrette dressing.
Corn, beans and squash are three of the earliest domesticated crops grown by Native Americans in the Sonoran region. For this recipe, prepared corn masa, which is usually used to make tortillas or gorditas, is pressed into a cast iron skillet for the crust. If you’ve never tried tepary beans, this recipe is an excellent way to experiment with them, but you can substitute black beans instead if you want.
Start your day with this Tucson Sonoran style power breakfast bowl. It’s high in protein, complex carbs and healthy fats.
A cheesy chicken and broccoli casserole featuring my copycat condensed Cream of Chicken Soup recipe.
This super easy salad dressing recipe is especially good on a Greek salad, cucumber salad or Asian Chicken salad and you can make it right in the bottle if you only have a little bit of Sriracha left.
Canadian bacon, eggs, herbs, and cheese baked inside slices of crusty baguettes. From the Unofficial Elf Cookbook by Jackie Alpers. A visually stunning breakfast casserole that is elegant, yet quick and easy to prepare.
Riced Cauliflower Coconut Fried Rice recipe is vegetarian yet high in protein and keto friendly.Â
Sweet and creamy butternut squash hash, hearty wheat berries and protein rich eggs merge into the perfect breakfast bowl.
For centuries, people believed that it was impossible to make a chicken pot pie in the microwave. I have proven them wrong.
This is a healthy and extremely flavorful way to dress up boneless skinless chicken breasts. Adding just a small amount of butter on top, and using grated parmesan for a garnish, keeps the fat and calories down.
Recipe for healthy breakfast taco cups. Low-carb tortillas filled with eggs, bacon, pinto beans, cheese and salsa.
Ohio meets Arizona! Cincinnati chili cheese nachos. “Cincinnachos” are the best of everything for snacking season. Cincinnati Style Chili, tortilla chips, kidney beans, cheddar cheese, raw onions and jalapenos.
Thai Grilled Chicken Thighs recipe. This recipe was developed and photographed for Today.com
Learn the secret to making no-flour sausage, egg and cheese breakfast muffin cups that are still light and fluffy!
These monsterized pesto-fried eggs are green and frightening looking, but delicious and monstrously easy to make.
These Sonoran grilled chicken wings are more spicy-hot that sweet. The heat index will vary greatly from the chili flakes and bbq sauce used.
Cute bite-sized vegan appetizer made with veggie dogs and spicy jalapeno sauerkraut filled Fillo cups accented with a dollop of yellow mustard.
A simple and satisfying crustless quiche that has all 5 things to love; peppers (both hot & sweet), onions, Swiss, Gruyere, eggs, and cream.
made this low-carb bread replacement (often called “Oopsie Bread”) out of eggs and cream cheese from a recipe I’ve seen all over the internet. It turned out great. It smells like cheesy-bread while it’s cooking, and it’s very light, and well, bread-like. Often hot dogs are too much about the bun, so this turned out to be a perfect alternative housing for the Sonoran hot dogs in my Taste of Tucson cookbook.
Recipe for roasted baby artichokes in an easy Italian style marinate. Food photography by Jackie Alpers.
A classic Greek Salad of chunky vegetables and feta tossed in a light vinaigrette will prove that you can indeed win friends with salad.
Three Johnny Marzetti recipes, including the original recipe for the pasta dish, low carb, and Paleo versions.
Iceberg wedge salad with bacon bits topped with a smashed bleu cheese vinaigrette. Recipe and food photography by cookbook author Jackie Alpers. The Wedge salad is one of these very classic, simple recipes that’s accessible to everyone. One that’s been loved for generations and modified along the way to accommodate changing tastes. This version is topped with a lighter vinaigrette.
Mini pizzas made with a herb and cheese crust and a combination of both hot and cold classic Italian toppings.
Until recently, the only biscuits I ever made at home came from a Pop n’ Fresh can, so when friends from overseas asked me for a real American biscuit recipe, I scoured every book I could find, starting with the biscuit tome Southern Biscuits by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart, and ending with Alton Brown’s always insightful analysis in I’m Just Here for More Food: Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking.
