One of my favorite things in life is cheese.  The yummy, gooey, stringy, beautiful, melty stuff of my dreams.  Of all food items you can cover with cheese, Grilled Cheese is my favorite.  I mean come on – a sandwich based on cheese!  Then you take that sandwich and grill it so that the cheese drips and coats and seeps into the little crevices!  Heaven!

Okay, the perfect grilled cheese is actually very scientific (yes, this is as close to science as I will ever get).  First you need to pick the perfect bread.  A type that has lots of  nooks and crannies so that the cheese will seep into all the little cracks.  You also want a bread that is going to have a little flavor to it.  Traditional white bread has no flavor so don’t even think about it!  Pick a bread that doesn’t come prepackaged in a cute little bag with wonderful marketing all over it.  Go to the fresh bread area and use your nose.  Smell for something unbelievable.  I have selected a sourdough.

Now on to the cheese.  Cheese is much more difficult than people realize.  You need to make sure you have selected a good melting cheese.  Cheese falls into 3 categories:  non melting cheeses, stringy cheeses and super melty cheeses.  For obvious reasons stay away from the non melting ones.  I like to use one stringy cheese like Mozzarella or Provolone  (make sure to shred them first to help them melt better),  and one super melty cheese like Asiago, Emmentaler, Ghouda or gruyere.  You will notice that most macaroni and cheese recipes call out these cheeses in their recipes.  I have found that if you use two super melty cheeses that they tend to melt a little too much and will totally seep into the bread.  You end up with cheesy bread instead of grilled cheese.

I have chosen Emmentaler and Provolone.  I love a strong swiss like Emmentaler on sourdough!  (I’m drooling…)

Pull out a skillet and turn your burner to medium heat.  I like to butter my bread with pesto instead of normal butter.  Load up your bread with your two cheeses and then put a nice dollop of tomato sauce on top.  Make sure to heat your tomato sauce first or it will stay too cold, your cheese won’t melt, and your bread will be burnt.  Yuck!   I was a long time tomato slice fan until I tried “the sauce.”  You have to try this!  It is so good!  Place your sandwich on the hot pan and grill to perfection.  Enjoy!

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