Smitten Kitchen’s Frico Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Deb Perelman, the cookbook author and the blogger behind the award-winning Smitten Kitchen, says that a more tone-aware food writer would ask you to forgive them for the simplicity of this recipe. "Grilled cheese? You think we need a recipe for cheese + bread + butter in a frying pan? But I won’t because making it this way changes everything,” she explains. “You can’t be convinced by the aroma of buttery, toasting, crisping cheese in a hot skillet because you haven’t made it yet, but I think that once you experience it—I mean, take a deep drag off the kitchen air and be so happy that you’re home again—it will be what keeps you from making grilled cheese any other way again,” Deb explains. This sandwich is the perfect partner for her Weeknight Tomato Soup.
Ingredients:
- 2 tsp. salted or unsalted butter
- 2 slices bread, such as hearty country wheat bread, sliced 1/2 inch (12 mm) thick
- 1/2 cup (2 oz./60 g) coarsely grated cheddar cheese, plus more to taste
Directions:
Spread the butter on one side of each slice of bread, the one that will be on the outside of the sandwich. Scatter all but 2 Tbs. of the cheese on the unbuttered side of one slice. Top with the second slice, so that the buttered side faces out.
Heat a nonstick fry pan or a well-seasoned cast-iron fry pan over low to medium heat. Sprinkle 1 Tbs. of the remaining cheese roughly in the center of the pan, then place the sandwich on top. Cook until the sandwich is golden underneath and the cheese browns and crisps, 2 to 4 minutes. Carefully lift the melted (frico-ed) cheese and bread onto a spatula, sprinkle the remaining 1 Tbs. cheese in the pan and then flip the sandwich over on top of it. Cook on the second side until golden and crisp, pressing down on the sandwich with the spatula to encourage it to all come together.
Transfer the sandwich to a plate, cut in half if desired and dig in. Makes 1 sandwich.
Alternate riffs: Are you a purist or do you like to put other things on your grilled cheese? Deb is a sucker for sweet and sour red onions with baby Swiss or Gruyère cheese. But when she’s using classic cheddar, she either likes a thin slice of tomato inside her sandwich or sometimes, the thinnest schmear of smooth Dijon mustard and a dash of onion powder.
Recipe courtesy of Deb Perelman, cookbook author and founder of Smitten Kitchen
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