Who doesn’t have fond childhood memories of grilled cheese sandwiches? They are the ultimate comfort food, easy to make, warm and gooey and goes with pretty much anything.
There are the classics: grilled cheese on white bread, grilled cheese and tomato, grilled cheese and ham. Add tomato soup and it was a complete meal. But today, the combinations are not only endless, they are the mouth watering delicious.
My first memory of a grilled cheese sandwich may sound a bit odd: after assembling the sandwich my mother wrapped it in foil and ‘grilled’ it with a hot iron. That’s right an iron, like in a clothes iron. I’m not sure why she did this, my mother must have read about this in one of the women’s magazines of the day. I guess it was her generation’s version of a Life Hack. But if you know Viola, this is not unusual; she marches to her own drum beat.
Of course there was the school cafeteria lunch version: buttered (with oleo) white bread and one slice of yellow American cheese. It had this strange, greasy taste. Maybe the oleo burned, I don’t know, it was just unpleasant.
Today, ‘Grilled Cheese’ sandwiches have morphed into many varieties, so whether you call them Panini’s, Patty Melts, Cubans, Cheese Melts or Grilled Melty’s, they’re a warm, gooey, savory, sweet concoction of layered comfort food.
So to pay proper respect to my favorite sandwich, I’ve decided to spend this year experiencing as many variations of the Grilled Melty as I can.
This will of course, mean I’ll have to work out more because this is not going to be a low-cal adventure. In this life, one of my greatest passion is experiencing food, the good, the bad and the ‘unhealthy’. My Mantra: “Moderation makes it OK”. Plus extra lifts. And lots of water.
So, first up is the BBQ Rib Grilled Melty. Using leftovers from Saturday nights Auburn St. Classic Pool Tournament, here’s a simple yet tasty sandwich.
BBQ Ribs
Cheddar Cheese
BBQ Sauce, use your favorite
Mayo
Ciabatta Roll
Melt butter in a hot cast iron pan and grill the insides of the Ciabatta roll. Spread a mixture of BBQ sauce/mayo on each slice and layer the cheese on top. Pull the meat off the ribs and pile it onto the bread. Then grill each side using a Panini press or equivalent to press the sandwich down. (A George Foreman Grill makes excellent Melty’s). Once the cheese is all melty, it’s ready to consume.