diff --git a/gallery_dl/extractor/recursive.py b/gallery_dl/extractor/recursive.py
index da1f5eac..41564842 100644
--- a/gallery_dl/extractor/recursive.py
+++ b/gallery_dl/extractor/recursive.py
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@
 """Recursive extractor"""
 
 from .common import Extractor, Message
-import requests
 import re
 
 
@@ -20,29 +19,13 @@ class RecursiveExtractor(Extractor):
     example = "recursive:https://pastebin.com/raw/FLwrCYsT"
 
     def items(self):
-        self.session.mount("file://", FileAdapter())
-        page = self.request(self.url.partition(":")[2]).text
-        del self.session.adapters["file://"]
+        url = self.url.partition(":")[2]
+
+        if url.startswith("file://"):
+            with open(url[7:]) as fp:
+                page = fp.read()
+        else:
+            page = self.request(url).text
 
         for match in re.finditer(r"https?://[^\s\"']+", page):
             yield Message.Queue, match.group(0), {}
-
-
-class FileAdapter(requests.adapters.BaseAdapter):
-    """Requests adapter for local files"""
-
-    def send(self, request, **kwargs):
-        response = requests.Response()
-        try:
-            response.raw = open(request.url[7:], "rb")
-        except OSError:
-            import io
-            response.raw = io.BytesIO()
-            response.status_code = requests.codes.bad_request
-        else:
-            response.raw.release_conn = response.raw.close
-            response.status_code = requests.codes.ok
-        return response
-
-    def close(self):
-        pass