The grilled cheese sandwich is one of the best comfort foods out there - probably one of my favorite comfort foods. We all grew up eating them. Diners and restaurants offer them, upscale eateries even dare to add ham, turkey, onions, and other things to make it seem more of an adult food and call it a grilled cheese sandwich. Sounds more like a ham and cheese to me. But when we get right down to it, the good old basic two slices of bread with melted cheese in between them really just can't be beat. Some people like to have tomato soup with theirs, my husband really likes his with Mrs. Grass Chicken Noodle Soup (with a ton of added noodles to it). That's how he ate it all the time back when he was a little kid. Not the greatest soup ever, but who doesn't love the egg in the package and getting to drop it in the water and watch it melt? Well I digress. Back to the task at hand - the wonderfully simple yet delicious grilled cheese sandwich.
Now, we want to start off with the bread. Although Wonder bread or some other generic white bread might be alright for the humble peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I prefer a denser, more hearty bread that will stand up to the butter and cheese while cooking. I love a good potato bread for this, but a hearty wheat or oat nut does very nicely too. If you really want to be decadent, use challah, sliced thick.
Take a non-stick pan - or even better, a cast iron pan - and heat it over low/medium heat. Take butter (or margarine or spread of your choice) and liberally apply to one side of the bread. Place this piece of bread butter-side down in the pan and add the cheese of your choice to the top of the bread in the pan. I prefer American, but a cheddar or provolone works well too. You can also mix cheeses, if you're feeling cheeky. Be sure to use two slices, whether it's one type of cheese or two. Butter the second piece of bread and place it butter-side up on top of the cheese.
Cook the bread until it is a nice brown color, then flip the sandwich over and cook until the other side is the same color as the first side. Now - and this is the most important part - when you put the sandwich on the plate, it has to be cut diagonally. Cutting horizontally or not cutting at all just doesn't give it the same flavor. Trust me! There's just something special about a grilled cheese sandwich cut into triangles.
I will leave it up to you if you feel the need to add a slice or two of tomato to your sandwich. It's not my thing, but it seems to be a popular addition. Now I would say if you wanted to add bacon to your sandwich that would be OK, because according to my husband, bacon makes everything better.
P.S. For a unique spin on the traditional grilled cheese sandwich, check out this Tex Mex grilled cheese.
