Take your grilled cheese game to the next level with this mozzarella grilled cheese sandwich! Bacon, basil, tomato, and mozzarella combine for a delicious and easy gourmet sandwich recipe.
Did you know April is Grilled Cheese Month? Neither did I until I was wasting time on Facebook catching up on the news one morning earlier this month. Not the kind of people to let an important national holiday such as this go without observation, the Godfather and I found the perfect opportunity to celebrate after I baked a batch of spent grain bread and made some mozzarella.
I made regular mozzarella and roasted garlic. It’s okay if you don’t make your own cheese, this is a new amusement for me, but it won’t replace the convenience of store-bought. Buy your favorite and enjoy without guilt!
Real life update: I haven’t made cheese in years. I have small humans. I’ve made this sandwich using shredded string cheese. Yes, like the kind you pack for kid lunches. No. Shame. Here.
Before we get to the recipe I’d like to impart a wonderful little tidbit of information that will save you a few minutes of cleaning time. Line your panini press with foil, then spray the foil with nonstick spray and grill. The grill stays clean, your sandwich doesn’t stick, and all is right in the world… or something. I worked in a deli a million years ago and this was one of the valuable life lessons learned.
Of course, this recipe, like any other sandwich, is totally open to interpretation. Use what you have, change up flavors as you’d like, etc. One of my favorite variations includes skipping the bacon and using pesto. It’s good with the bacon too, but sometimes I don’t have time or bacon on hand to cook.
Swap out the bread for your favorite variety. A sourdough or Italian have been my favorites for this particular sandwich. If you don’t mind something thicker, mozzarella grilled cheese sandwiches lend themselves well to ciabatta bread too. Your final result would look more like this turkey panini.
What I love about this sandwich is that the flavors remind me of a margherita pizza, but with bacon added. It’s a good combination of fresh flavors and comfort food.
The sandwich keeps that feeling of freshness because I don’t grill the tomatoes with the rest of the ingredients. You may, personal preference, but I don’t care for hot tomatoes in a sandwich. The inside of the sandwich doesn’t get hot enough to char the tomatoes a bit like on a pizza, so I just add them later.
I hope you enjoy this grown up grilled cheese recipe, darlings!
Mozzarella Grilled Cheese with Bacon, Tomato, and Fresh Basil
Take your grilled cheese game to the next level with this mozzarella grilled cheese sandwich! Bacon, basil, tomato, and mozzarella combine for a delicious and easy gourmet sandwich recipe.
Ingredients
- 2 slices of wheat or whole grain bread
- 2 slices of bacon
- 1 ounce mozzarella cheese
- 2 tbsp sliced fresh basil
- 2-3 slices fresh tomato
- good olive oil
Instructions
- Line your panini press with foil, spray with nonstick spray, then preheat to medium heat.
- In a skillet, cook your bacon to desired crispness and drain on a paper towel.
- Brush the inside of your bread with olive oil.
- Layer cheese, bacon and basil on your bread then place on the panini press and grill until the cheese is melted and the outside of the bread is lightly toasted.
- Remove the sandwich from the grill and add the tomato slices.
- Enjoy!
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Thalia
Sunday 28th of June 2015
Hands down better than any grilled cheese I have ever made before. This looks TOO good.
TheGodmother
Thursday 2nd of July 2015
Thank you!