Asiago Pesto Grilled Cheese

You're probably thinking, grilled cheese, WHAT-ever.

But wait! There are tricks for making an exceptional grilled cheese. Grilled cheese is my favorite, I would choose it for living on a desert island (If you had to pick one food to eat forever what would it be? I've heard hot dogs, burritos, sandwiches, etc. because they are easy to change up!)

Tricks for an Exceptional Grilled Cheese

1. Anything 'stringy' or wetter (onions, meat, avocado, tomato) that could potentially be pulled out of the sandwich in one chin-burning-bite should be chopped small or in strips. So when you take a bite you don't pull the whole inside of the sandwich out. Crumble that bacon, chop those onions, mash that avocado. Lunch meat, arrange in strips. For a tomato tip, see this here.

2. Butter the bread to the edge. No compromises. Use butter and use it abundantly. This ain't health food.

3. The softer/more melty the cheese, the higher the heat. If you use a great extra sharp cheddar you need to fry the sandwich at a lower temp than if you are using American cheese. If you cook extra sharp cheddar too fast it won't melt, if you cook American too long, it will melt everywhere and you'll lose cheese. Also cheese tends to pool into the middle of the sandwich, so arrange it evenly or even more on the outer perimeter of the bread.

4. Don't over-load it. Yeah avocado and cheese and tomatoes and bacon and arugula and onions sound spiffing... on a non-burning hot grilled sandwich. Grilled, that is a recipe for mess and everything squishing out of the back of the sandwich. One-two wet things (avocado, tomato, greens, onion), cheese, meat. 

People mistake simple for not-good. NOT true.

For this I used half and half asiago and half extra sharp Welsh cheddar.

When using harder cheeses like this, the trick is to roughly grate them instead of slice. Grated cheese melts better. Plus when using two cheeses you can toss them so they are fully combined into a super delicious hybrid cheese. Cheddago! 

To the edge people! Everything to the edge! Even on regular sandwiches, put the spread to the edge. Every bite should be the same wonderfulness. I butter first and then stack them butter sides together to build the sandwich. If you find that hard to separate, build it right on a spatula. 

About a tablespoon of pesto. This is Costco's Kirkland brand, I have never tasted better store made pesto. Look how green and fresh it is!

Spread that to the edges and sprinkle one layer of cheese on. It's good to distribute cheese throughout the layers for both flavor and 'glue'.

This lunch meat turkey is quite thin and soft, so I didn't need to chop it up. If you are using 'real' turkey, it would be best to shred it.

Second layer of cheese!

Cooking on level 3 for my stove. 4 is frying heat and anything above that is just FIRE haha! So 3 is probably medium realistically. It should sizzle some, but not 'whoa! get a splatter screen!'

Ta-da! Nice and firm construction and soooo good. I thought tomatoes would go nicely so I put them on the side. I like them better when they aren't heated anyway.

Alternate Delicious Ideas

1. Chopped red onions, sliced ham and smoked Gouda.

2. Plain ol' American cheese Kraft singles (use only 2 slices), dot with Sriracha, dip in ranch.

3. Extra sharp cheddar, tomatoes and crumbled bacon.

4. Spread of goat cheese, shredded arugula, ground black pepper, Fontina cheese.

5. Spread of tomato sauce, chopped (seared) pepperoni, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, sprinkling of oregano.

6. Ham, bleu cheese crumbles, Swiss or provolone, shredded spinach.

7. Shredded chicken, spread of mashed avocado, sprinkling of red pepper, pepper jack cheese. 

Pretty much the combos are endless. I'd be so happy and fat alone on my desert island :)