Description
Elevate your grilled cheese experience by adding homemade pesto and sliced tomato! These pesto tomato grilled cheese sandwiches are a delicious and satisfying weeknight meal which take just 15 minutes to prepare. Made with crusty sourdough bread, melty mozzarella cheese, and homemade parsley pesto, everyone will love these “fancy” grilled cheese sandwiches.
Ingredients
- 2 packed cups fresh parsley (a combination of leaves and stems is fine)
- 1 packed cup baby spinach
- Juice of half a lemon
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/3 cup raw pine nuts
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 1/4 tsp Kosher salt
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Grilled cheese sandwiches
- 4 slices of sourdough bread
- 1 large tomato, sliced
- 4–5 slices of low moisture mozzarella cheese
- 3–4 tbsp unsalted butter
Instructions
- First, prepare the parsley pesto. Add all pesto ingredients to a food processor, besides the extra virgin olive oil.
- Pulse the food processor 5-10 times, or until the ingredients are well combined but some texture remains.
- With the food processor running, pour in the olive oil. Be careful not to overblend – you still want some texture to the pesto.
- Heat a 12-inch nonstick skillet on the stovetop over medium heat.
- Spread about 1 tbsp of butter on one side of each piece of bread.
- Place one piece of bread, buttered side down, into the preheated skillet. (You can either cook sandwiches one at a time, or at the same time, depending on if your bread fits).
- Smear a generous dollop of pesto on top the bread in the skillet.
- Top the pesto with 1-2 pieces of mozzarella cheese.
- Top the mozzarella cheese with 2 slices of tomato.
- Top the tomato slices with 1-2 more pieces of cheese.
- Place top piece of bread on the cheese, buttered side up.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes until the bottom piece of bread is golden brown and crispy all over. Flip the sandwich, then cook for another 2-3 minutes to crisp up the other piece of bread.
- Slice sandwiches in half and serve right away while hot and cheese is melty.
Notes
What to serve with grilled cheese sandwiches
If you’d like, you can pair this grilled cheese with something like a salad or soup. Some recipes that would pair well with grilled cheese: my Instagram favorite simple kale and romaine salad, creamy broccoli leek soup, crunchy kale slaw with apples, curry cauliflower squash soup, or vegetable farro soup.
Keywords: tomato pesto grilled cheese, pesto tomato grilled cheese, grilled cheese with pesto, best bread for grilled cheese, parsley pesto