Cheesy Tostadas

Tostadas are traditionally made by frying or baking a flat tortilla until crispy and then topping it with all kinds of tasty ingredients. Here's a quick and easy way to make tostadas out of grated cheddar cheese. It's an extension of my recipe for cheddar cheese crisps. Here's an example of this cheesy tostada in a recipe for chorizo tostadas.

The cheesy tostadas are made by baking grated cheddar cheese for about eight to ten minutes. As the cheese melts it forms a light, crunchy, tostada. I use sharp cheddar but any cheddar works here. The sharp has a stronger flavor than regular cheddar cheese.

I recommend grating a fresh block of cheese but you can buy cheese pre-graded. Just be aware that quite often there are additives in pre-graded cheese to prevent it from clumping.

For measuring the cheese, a quarter cup of cheddar cheese is one ounce. Interestingly, not all quarter cups of cheese are one ounce. Some are a bit more than an ounce or a bit less, depending on the type of cheese. Soft or crumbly cheeses like goat cheese will be closer to one and a half ounces of cheese, while hard cheese like cheddar and Parmesan range between three quarters of an ounce to one ounce.