When I was planning my menu a few weeks ago, I came across these grilled cheese sandwiches in a recent issue of Fine Cooking. I was immediately on board. The most basic grilled cheese sandwich made with so-so bread and a slice or two of American cheese is pretty delicious in my book, so this amped up version was bound to be a home run. The sandwich starts with thick rustic Italian bread, hearty enough to support the fillings but still tender, even when toasted until golden brown. There are not one, but three kinds of cheese in play, and one of them happens to be my very favorite (Gruyere!). The original recipe called for fresh tomatoes and salty prosciutto and while the tomatoes sounded fantastic, I’m not big on prosciutto. Instead, I swapped it for an even more appealing option – bacon! Finally, when the sandwiches have finished cooking, the toasty bread is infused with garlic flavor by rubbing it with cut garlic cloves. A simple step that adds so much!
I wasn’t sure Shane would be interested in this recipe, so I planned to make it for lunch last weekend. We often do our own thing for lunch on weekends so I figured it was the best time. When he heard what I was having, though, he wanted in on it 🙂 We skipped the tomatoes on his sandwich of course. These were such a big hit that we wound up having them a second time that weekend. I hadn’t purchased any fontina, so the first time we made the recipe we used only Gruyere and Parmesan. The sandwiches were delicious, but just for fun, we tried adding cheddar to the mix the second time and liked them even more. The other change we made on our second attempt at the recipe was upping the bacon from one to two slices (always a good decision) and throwing an extra slice of tomato on too. That’s the nice thing about this recipe – it’s almost more of a guide than a recipe. You can alter the ingredients to suit your tastes or to work with what you have on hand, and the result will still be just as good. My lunch struggles have been well documented on this blog, but I’m pretty sure I could easily eat this sandwich (or some variation on it) every day and be perfectly content!
Garlic-Rubbed Grilled Cheese with Bacon and Tomatoes
adapted from Fine Cooking
8 slices bacon
3 oz (about 1 1/4 cups) grated Gruyère
3 oz (about 1 cup) grated fontina
2 tablespoons finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste)
8 1/2-inch-thick slices Italian bread
2 medium ripe tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 to 2 large cloves garlic, halved and peeled for rubbing
Cook the bacon in a heavy-bottomed skillet until browned and crisp. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate. Pour off the grease from the pan and wipe clean.
Combine the cheeses and red pepper flakes in a small bowl. Lay 4 slices of the bread on your work surface, and distribute half of the cheese evenly among the bread. Top the cheese with 2 slices of bacon and then 2 or 3 slices of tomatoes (enough to cover the cheese and bacon). Evenly distribute the remaining cheese among the 4 sandwiches. Lightly butter one side of the remaining four slices of bread, and put them on top of the sandwiches, butter side up.
Heat your heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Place the sandwiches butter side down in the pan and cook on the first side until the bread is golden brown and toasted. Meanwhile, butter the top slice of bread on each sandwich. Flip the sandwiches using a spatula and continue to cook on the other side until the bread is golden brown. You can use the spatula to compress the sandwich as it cooks on the second side. Remove the sandwiches from the pan and immediately rub both sides with the cut side of a garlic clove. Cut the sandwiches in half and serve.
Makes 4 sandwiches
this looks amazing! I want for breakfast… right now!
OMG..I love grilled cheese sandwiches.I started making them when I was 10 yrs old and haven’t looked back since. I still can’t believe that my eldest baby girl does not like GC sandwiches. These looks so delicious!! I might just make them over the weekend. And Bacon!! That is our future dog’s name, lol. Jackie
I love this! I like to weigh down grilled sandwiches like this. Often I put a piece of foil over them and then use another pan of suitable size. We found some bacon at Trader Joe’s the other day. It’s called something like “ends and pieces.” It was really inexpensive. The only odd thing about it is the pieces are not very uniform. But, heck, we’re cooks. We can deal with that.
Soon…very very soon.
Oh how I love some bacon in my grilled cheese. I could eat this for every meal of the day.
This is my kind of sandwich! I haven’t made grilled cheese of any sort in way too long!
This was super tasty, I would be all for having it frequently!
Grilled cheese is such a serious comfort food for me. I would so love one of these sandwiches right now!! And all that cheese…sigh!
I have a feeling it’s going to be a grilled cheese kind of day today 🙂
The melting cheese is making my mouth water, and I just had a tasty lunch!
My husband goes through phases with his food. Sometimes for weeks he will only want one thing. Right now it’s grilled cheese, and if I don’t want to feel like a short order cook and make my own meal in addition to his grilled cheese, I’ll eat one, too. I like to spice mine up, though, and this is a great way to do it. Thanks!
YUM! I cannot wait to make these!
YUM! Love the bacon and garlic.
What a nice and original idea !! These look so divine !
This sounds like my kind of grilled cheese!! 🙂
I love you and I LOVE this!!! I wish, this was what I was making tonight!
YUM! And I actually have everything I need for these, so I know what we’re having for lunch!
What a delectable mouth watery sandwich you’ve got here. I would love to prepare that for a heavy breakfast.
I can taste it through the photo!
I think I could eat any kind of grilled cheese, but this one stands out! How fabulous!
Those look incredible – I think I’d make them for dinner with a salad!
BTW, how fun to open up my Cooking Light today and see your blog mentioned! Go Tracey!
I’m loving “fancy” grilled cheese right now too! We made some last week with basil, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella. So good!
Grilled cheese is my all time fav sandwich. And with American cheese! This one, however. looks to leave that in the dust. THREE types of cheese, bacon?? Oh, Yeah!!
I’ve been craving grilled cheese because The Great Food Truck Race has a grilled cheese truck. This sandwich would be fantastic with some home-grown tomatoes!
How could one not begin to drool when they look at this? Its awesome.
I’m a huge grilled cheese sandwich fan. I mean, it is basically all I ate for my first semester of college but I never thought to rub it with garlic. It sounds fantastic. I can’t wait to try this.
I bet this would be great with a tomato soup as well.
LOVE THIS! MUST MAKE NOW!! Thanks for sharing!
Now this is my kind of grilled cheese sandwich! I can’t wait to try it!
Bacon, Gruyere and tomato – this sounds like the best grilled cheese sandwich ever!
Now THIS is grilled cheese done right! They look AMAZING Tracey and you have me now dreading the boring lunch I’m about to eat.
Oh, this looks *amazing*… Blog reading late at night is dangerous. I’m tempted to make a late night snack now. 🙂
Wow. That sounds amazing. You really can’t go wrong with these ingredients. Especially bacon! What a great idea to rub the bread with fresh cut garlic. These would be great with a cup of creamy homemade tomato soup!
This looks AMAZING!!
I really wish I hadn’t found this just before lunchtime. They look so good and now I’m so hungry!
Just made this. It might be the best thing that ever happened to me.
I will be eating this soon. I usually prefer to bake the bacon instead of fry – it’s less of a mess and the bacon comes out just as good.
Thanks for the recipes, especially grilled cheese with bacon. Yum. I’m looking forward to trying it. Probably work well in a panini press, too.
I put a fried egg right inside for breakfast. My husband loved it!
Complete Americana goodness.
Made these last night – they were delicious. The thick bread worked great with the gooey cheese and the juicy tomatoes. Never would have thought to mix red pepper with the cheese, but it added a wonderful flavor to the sandwiches. And the garlic rub at the end is a touch that puts these grilled cheeses over the top! Thanks for the recipe!
Hi! Just wanted to let you know I featured your sandwich on my blog for the Crazy Cooking Challenge! It is absolutely out of this world! Thanks for sharing a fantastic recipe!
Jennifer @ KitchenJoy
http://kitchenjoyblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/garlic-rubbed-grilled-cheese-with-bacon.html
okay, my goofy question. what kind of bread has everyone been using? does italian bread say “italian bread” on it? sorry, i know there’s pugliese, ciabatta, etc.,
@Heather – At my local store, there is a bread that’s specifically called Italian, but I wouldn’t stress the bread choice too much. You could really use anything you want – just be sure to slice it as thick as specified.
thx, tracey! i saw variations of italian types of bread in the bakery of the grocery store, and then orowheat has an “italian bread” that you find on the shelves. i’m thinking sliced sourdough might be good.
I will never make another grilled cheese again without rubbing garlic on the outside. These were sooo good. My husband, who doesn’t like tomatoes, ate what the kids couldn’t finish. I think he nearly ate 3 of them! 🙂 They were super delicious! Thank you for sharing!
Made them tonight, wonderful but the garlic absolutely the most brillant idea , just smelling it before biting in to the sandwich so good..
Thank you for sharing this link. Some friends are coming over tomorrow and I was thinking of serving them sandwiches, and I bet this will be the perfect recipe. It is not only easy but it definitely sounds and looks so good! Again, thank you for sharing.
I love adding sliced tomatoes to my grilled cheese!!! Denny’s did that to my sandwich like 20 years ago and I’ve been doing it ever since. This addition of bacon sounds awesome!