Sun Dried Tomato Tapenade Grilled Cheese ~ Macheesmo

I went through a phase many years ago where I was looking for the best grilled cheese sandwich. It kind of ended when I realized that all grilled cheese sandwiches are pretty good. However, this Grilled Tapenande Cheese with a homemade sundried tomato and olive tapenade has remained one of my favorites.

The trick to making this sandwich delicious is obviously the homemade tapenade. In fact, I’ll double the tapenade recipe a lot and use it for all sorts of things!

Good fresh mozzarella cheese also goes well with this sandwich. Just be careful not to over-melt the cheese as it may fall apart!

Production of the tapenade

You could make a more traditional tapenade with capers and anchovies if that’s your thing. However, I went for a version with garlic and sun-dried tomatoes.

If you have time, you can roast a clove of garlic. This couldn’t be easier. Simply cut off the top of a whole onion, drizzle with a little olive oil and a pinch of salt, and wrap in foil.

Bake it at 350 for about 30-40 minutes. Your house will smell delicious and the garlic should be a nice light brown color. Let it cool down for a few minutes.

I’ve made this tapenade without roasting the garlic a few times over the years and it works well. The benefit of roasting the garlic is that you can add more garlic as it has a milder flavor profile.

An olive tapenade like this is easiest to make in a food processor, although you can chop absolutely anything together. I tossed in my sun dried tomatoes first as they were the hardest to chop and rotated them for a few seconds. Then I added my olives and finally my roasted garlic cloves. Drizzle in a few tablespoons of olive oil until the mixture comes together.

Bonus tip: If your sundried tomatoes come in olive oil, use a few spoonfuls of that oil in the tapenade for extra flavor.

Pulse it a few times to combine everything and you’re done. You don’t want to overwork this spread. A little chunky is good in my book.

Prepare grilled cheese sandwich

I think choosing the right bread is one of the most important things you can do for grilled cheese. I think I wisely chose this sandwich. I went for a rustic sourdough bread, although I’ve also made it with homemade no-knead bread.

You want to make sure you have something savory to stand up to the tapenade.

To finish the sandwich, take two slices of bread and brush them lightly with butter. This will be the outside of the sandwich. Then turn the pieces over and spread some tapenade on both sides of the bread. Layer on top of sliced ​​mozzarella and some fresh basil and beat everything together so the buttered sides are on the outside!

It’s ready for the heat!

The most important thing about a grilled cheese sandwich is controlling the heat. Too hot and you’ll burn your bread before your cheese has melted. Too little heat and you’ll starve before it’s done.

Depending on your stovetop and pan, medium-high heat should be about right. Just put the sandwich in and let it cook for a few minutes, turning gently. These aren’t like pancakes, you can flip them over and over and that’s okay.

This is about as perfect as it gets in my book:

The good news about this sandwich is that mozzarella melts incredibly quickly. So you don’t have to worry about the bread getting toasted before the cheese has melted. In fact, the concern is that if you overcook this sandwich, the mozzarella will OVERMELT and just fall apart in your sandwich. Fresh mozzarella is already very soft, so just reheat it and it will turn out great.

My recipe for grilled cheese with sun-dried tomato tapenade

Here are a few other great recipes to try!