Alyssa's Grilled Cheese Part Deux

As promised, here is another grilled cheese recipe for National Grilled Cheese Month!  It's not as life-changing as the Brie and fig jam grilled cheese that I posted earlier this week.  But this one is more of a classic grilled-cheese-and-tomato-soup combination, and makes a great meal.  It's melted mozzarella and creamy ricotta with a hint of buttery garlic.  Dip it into the rich, sweet tomato-basil soup and you've got a heavenly Italian twist on a traditional favorite.

The garlic butter makes this sandwich special, so don't leave it out if you need to cut corners.  But if you find it a little overwhelming to make everything from scratch, you could find a substitute something store-bought for the tomato soup and save yourself some time (and some dish-washing!).

Mozzarella and Ricotta Garlic-Butter Grilled Cheese with Roasted Tomato-Basil Soup
serves 2

For the soup:
4 large tomatoes, each cut into 8 wedges
2 tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Sugar, if needed
4 large leaves of basil

For the butter:
2 tablespoons of salted butter (add a pinch of salt if you don't have salted butter)
1 clove of garlic, minced

For the sandwiches:
4 slices of 1/2 inch thick crusty Italian bread
Mozzarella (I sliced a ball of fresh mozzarella, but you could probably get a really nice stringy melted cheese with deli slices or a block of the mozzarella that has less moisture than the fresh stuff.  I just couldn't find any here!)
Ricotta

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Toss the tomato wedges with the balsamic, olive oil and salt.  Spread out on a sheet pan and roast for 30-45 minutes, until the tomatoes are soft and the juices start to concentrate.  Keep an eye on them though, because the juices can burn and then you're stuck without any tomato-y goodness.  It should look sort of like this:

Blend the roasted tomatoes with the basil leaves.  My puree was a little thick, so I added water until I got the viscosity that I wanted.  Transfer to a pot and keep warm on the stove.  Also, my tomatoes were pretty acidic, so I needed to add a little bit of sugar to make it sweeter (but I guess that's what you get when you use out-of-season tomatoes).

Make the garlic butter while the tomatoes are roasting.  Melt the butter over medium-low heat on your stovetop.  Add the minced garlic and cook until the garlic has mellowed, but before it starts browning.

Warm a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat.  We're toasting both sides of the bread to get more of that fantastic garlic butter into the sandwich.  Brush one side of the bread with garlic butter.  Toast the buttered side of the bread until golden brown.  Spread ricotta on half of the slices and place the mozzarella on the other halves (on the toasted sides).  Pair up the cheeses to make sandwiches.  Brush the outsides of the sandwiches with garlic butter and place back in the pan.  Toast until golden brown, then flip and toast the other side.

Serve with the soup, and enjoy!

Alyssa's Brie and Fig Jam Grilled Cheese

Holy crap, you guys.

Cancel your plans for the next few hours.  You need to get to the grocery store RIGHT NOW and make this.

Carla and I were really excited to learn that April is National Grilled Cheese Month, because we have spent many hours bonding over grilled cheese sandwiches.  I'm not exaggerating.  The closest restaurant to the office building where we met is a grilled cheese restaurant called The Melt.

I had way too many ideas, so I narrowed it down to 3 options and put it to a Facebook poll.  These were the options:
1. Brie, fig jam and arugula on French bread.
2. Mozzarella and ricotta on Italian bread with garlic/herb butter and tomato-basil soup.
3. Gruyere, caramelized onions and thyme on garlic-rubbed French bread.

I thought for sure that #2 or #3 would win, but the response was overwhelmingly in favor of #1.  And wow, am I glad my Facebook friends talked me into it.  I've mentioned before that I usually lean more toward savory than sweet, so THANK YOU for making me change it up!

To be honest, the arugula is not necessary.  It adds a nice peppery bite, and I would use it if I wanted to convince myself that this would make an appropriate lunch sandwich.  But if you don't care about "adult things" like eating vegetables, then you're not missing much by leaving it out.

Brie is fantastic when warm.  It's creamy and melty and just a little bit earthy.  Add sweet fig jam, crunchy toasted bread, nutty browned butter...and wow.  It's tastebud overload in a really, really good way.

Brie and Fig Brown-Butter Grilled Cheese

A wedge of your favorite Brie (spreads best at room temperature, so let it sit out for a little while if you have that kind of self-control)
Fig jam
Crusty French or Italian bread, sliced into 1/2 inch thick slices
2 tablespoons butter (don't skimp on the butter if you think you need more.  Come on, you're already eating Brie so you may as well go all-out at this point...!)
Arugula (optional)

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a heavy-bottomed skillet.  Let the butter brown on medium heat (but be careful not to let it burn!).
I strongly believe in toasting both sides of the bread, but you can skip this step if you don't share that philosophy: put all of your bread slices in the pan and coat one side with the butter.  Let them toast in the pan until golden brown.
Remove the bread and smear half of them with brie (on the toasted side).  Smear the other slices with fig jam (on the toasted side).  Add the arugula, if using.  Pair up the flavors to turn them into sandwiches.
Brown the other tablespoon of butter in the pan.  Toast the sandwiches on each side, making sure you coat them with butter so that they brown evenly.
Warning: eat this in a place where you don't mind if other people hear you moan.  It's that good.

I had so much fun making this that I think I'm just going to try all of the options I put up on Facebook!  I'll be sure to post the results if any of them are worth your time...