Grilled Cheese with Spinach-and-Tomato Sauce

I was so excited about this recipe. I mean, who doesn't love grilled cheese sandwiches? Cheese is such a universally delicious food and when you pair it with bread and a hot skillet, you have your own little piece of heaven. They even have gourmet grilled cheese restaurants! But as wonderful as a gooey grilled cheese sandwich can be, I think this may have overdone it a little bit.

Grilled Cheese with Spinach-and-Tomato Sauce

SERVINGS: 4
Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes in thick puree (from one 15-ounce can)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1 pound spinach, stems removed, leaves washed well and shredded
8 thick slices from a large round loaf of country bread
1/2 pound mozzarella, sliced
1/4 pound mild goat cheese, crumbled (about 3/4 cup)


Directions
In a large saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over moderately low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the spinach and simmer until the spinach wilts and the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes longer. Cover to keep warm.

Top 4 slices of the bread with mozzarella. Spoon some of the spinach mixture over each, spreading the spinach to the edges of the bread. Sprinkle the goat cheese over the spinach and top with the remaining bread slices.

In a large nonstick frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over moderate heat. Cook two of the sandwiches, turning once, until the cheese melts and the bread is golden, about 4 minutes in all. Repeat with the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and the other two sandwiches, keeping the first batch of sandwiches warm on a baking sheet in a 200° oven.

I did have to adapt this recipe. For starters, I didn't use spinach. I didn't want to buy a whole bag of it and not have any more uses for it, and then have it go bad. Also, I used regular 100% whole grain sandwich bread instead of a "large round loaf of country bread," which I guess could mean french bread. I couldn't find any in the store that I liked, so I just used what I already had on hand. And again with the "1 small onion, chopped." Even if I were to have a small onion, I still wouldn't use the whole thing! Who in their right mind would use that much onion for a recipe like this. Crazy. I used one slice and that was plenty.



The mozzarella was a brand we have used before, Mozzarella Fresca. But the packaging was different this time around. And when I sliced into it, it looked a little like swiss cheese. There must have been some air bubbles in the mozz ball when it was packaged or something. It tasted almost the same. It was strange, but I used it anyway. A good way to slice cheese like this is to put it in the freezer for a little while before you're ready to use it. The cheese will firm up and it will be easier to cut and won't squish. I cut three slices and put them on the bread. Then I spooned on some of the tomato mixture, sans spinach, and topped it with the crumbled goat cheese.



In an effort to save me from having to wash more pans, I pulled out the old standby: the George Foreman grill. This thing is at least eight years old and it's still ticking. Good old George. I brushed the surface of the grill with a little vegetable oil and put the sandwich in place, closing the lid as much as it would go with my over stacked sandwich.



A few minutes later, the sandwich was done and I was ready to eat. The first thing I noticed when I lifted the sandwich onto the plate was how heavy it was. I mean, dense. The cheese seemed to have doubled in volume in just a short amount of time. I had The Blob on my sandwich. When I cut into it, the cheese just oozed out every side of the sandwich. Usually a good sign, right?



Could it be... this was too much cheese? You can see the tomato mixture and goat cheese peeking out from the left there, but the rest of the sandwich was taken over by the mozzarella. There were some seriously chewy bites, but I persevered. Whoever came up with this recipe had their heart in the right place, but it was a bit too much. It's possible I used too much mozz cheese (three slices, none too thick) but that's a lot of melting action going on. This probably could be adapted into something wonderful. Overall, it's pretty hard to screw up a grilled cheese sandwich, and for what it's worth, I think this was good.