caprese grilled cheese

caprese grilled cheese 1266

I heard a rumor that April is apparently “National Grilled Cheese Month” (which is apparently a thing now). Since I had the whole month of April to hop on board with this theme, naturally I waited until the last (full) week to do so.

We’ll start with one of my favorite combos – caprese.

The bright flavor of the pesto with warm, creamy cheese, fresh ripe tomatoes, and crisp garlicky bread … Just trust me when I say that this combination is not one that you want to miss out on.

It’s basically spring inside of a sandwich.  Well, Spring inside of a warm, gooey grilled cheese sandwich. The hearty bread combined with the rich cheese and the burst of fresh ripe tomatoes makes this sandwich the perfect balance of filling and refreshing.

caprese grilled cheese

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 2 sandwiches

Serving Size: 1 sandwich

Ingredients

    For the grilled cheese
  • 4 slices of hearty bread (I used Trader Joe's country white)
  • 2 slices mozzarella cheese, halved if necessary
  • 2 slices provolone or fontina cheese, halved if necessary
  • 1 roma tomato, sliced into 1/4-inch slices
  • 4 basil leaves, torn
  • 2 Tablespoons pesto, homemade or storebought
  • Garlic butter (recipe below)
  • Garlic butter
  • 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped or smashed
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

    Make the garlic butter
  1. Melt butter over medium-low heat in a small pan. Add garlic and salt; continue cooking over low/medium-low until very fragrant and cloves are lightly-browned and the salt has dissolved. Keep an eye on the butter making sure not to burn either the butter or the garlic.
  2. Remove from heat and pour into heat-proof container, straining out the garlic cloves. Set aside until ready to use.
  3. Make the grilled cheese
  4. Have your mise en place ready to go as this will go quickly.
  5. Heat your skillet on medium heat until warmed. Place bread slices inside-down on your skillet and brush the tops with the garlic butter.
  6. Once the insides are toasted, flip over and spread inside of bread with pesto sauce.
  7. Layer with cheeses, basil leaves, tomato and another slice of cheese (I like to cheese both sides of my grilled cheese).
  8. Tent with foil (or a lid if you're fancy enough to own one) until the cheese begins to melt.
  9. Close the sandwiches and continue cooking until completely heated through and cheese is melted, flipping if necessary.
https://wee-eats.com/2014/04/21/caprese-grilled-cheese/

caprese-grilled-cheese-pin

7 thoughts on “caprese grilled cheese

  1. this is seriously all i want to eat today. mostly because i feel like eating more than one sandwich for a meal would be, i don’t know, a little much, but if i just let all three meals be caprese grilled cheese? THREE SANDWICHES. maybe a fourth thrown in there somewhere b/c i could make like, a half extra for lunch and then eat the rest for dinner.

    • There is always something about eating more than one sandwich that feels like “too much” … but you could always make a half, then come back and make another half, and then if a third half needs to be made then SO BE IT! 😉

  2. When you get down to it, a good sandwich is all you need. It is really under-rated. I love caprese – who doesn’t. I wish I could grab this right off the screen.

  3. Omg. This looks amazing. I’ve made caprese grilled cheese (and caprese crepes) before, and ordered caprese paninis at restaurants, but probably never with basil leaves AND pesto AND garlic butter. I bet the garlic butter just takes this over the top!

    • Thanks, Allison! The garlic bread and pesto really do make such a difference! Just wait until you see next week’s sandwich…. 😉

  4. This is Nate’s favorite weekend lunch. Mine isn’t quite so fancy…i just try to make sure I always have some tomato, mozz and a jar of pesto on hand. I want one now please!!!

Leave a Reply to Allison (Spontaneous Tomato) Cancel reply