Some nights you want to make something simple for dinner that doesn’t take much thought. Tonight was that night for me … however, I did put thought into it – I’d planned on making grilled cheese since Saturday when I did my grocery shopping.

I wanted my grilled cheese to have a Pecorino/Romano crust on the outside and for the cheese inside, I chose Fontina and Havarti. I sliced a beautiful heirloom tomato I found at our local market … I couldn’t pass it up, and placed that between the slices of Fontina and Havarti so that the cheese would melt around it. I chose to use my panini press to make my sandwich, but a pan on your cooktop would work just fine.

(Just look at this beauty)

I buttered the outside of my sourdough bread before sprinkling each half of the bread with a tablespoon of grated Pecorino Romano cheese mixture.

Where Dennis chooses to have a side of potato chips with his grilled cheese, I choose to have a simple arugula salad with nothing more than a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkling of kosher salt and a sprinkling of pepper. I did decide to place my salad on top of each half of the sandwich and eat it with a fork and knife … a sort of grilled cheese salad, if you will.

Ingredients

• 2 slices good sourdough

• 2 slices heirloom tomato

• 1 slice Havarti (or more if you like)

• 1 slice Fontina cheese (or more if you like)

• 2 tablespoons grated Pecorino Roman Cheese (or parmesan would be fine)

• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

Directions

1. Melt butter
2. Heat panini press.
3. Brush butter on one side of each slice of bread.
4. Sprinkle grated Pecorino Romano cheese over butter.
5. Lay first slice down on bottom of panini press.
6. Lay one slice of cheese on the bread.
7. Place two tomato slices on top of the cheese.
8. Lay the second slice of cheese on top of the tomatoes.
9. Place your second slice of bread on top of the sandwich and sprinkle the second tablespoon of grated cheese on the top.
10. Close the panini press and let it do it’s magic. (There is a light to signal when your sandwich is done.)

Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris