Italian Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
These Italian Grilled Cheese Sandwiches are layered with salami, provolone and mozzarella…and they make for one epic sandwich on a chilly winter day!
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What do you guys eat for lunches on the weekends? For us, it’s usually just something simple like pita chips and hummus or crackers and cheese. Sometimes we’ll do a sandwich if we happen to have good bread around. (On a side note, I made a batch of Jalapeno Cheddar Bread recently. Talk about epic sandwiches!) In the winter, grilled cheese sandwiches are one of our go-to Saturday lunches. Melty cheese, perfectly buttered bread…you can’t go wrong there!
But last weekend, Laura had a most ingenious idea. Lunches are often a good way to eat some of the random leftover ingredients we have in the fridge. We had some leftover pizza sauce from a recent round of margherita pizzas. I was actually about to freeze the sauce when Laura told me to hold off. She suggested that pizza sauce on a grilled cheese sandwich might be pretty tasty. But then we took it one step further and added some sliced salami.
You see, Laura comes from a big Italian family. That means she loves Italian food. (I’m not complaining about that one!) So when we were in Sam’s Club recently, Laura spotted the industrial-sized pack of sliced salami. Needless to say, that salami ended up in our cart…along with a pack of sliced mozzarella and provolone cheeses. Fortunately, we had leftovers of both the cheeses and the salami…add in a spoonful of that pizza sauce, and we had these delicious Italian Grilled Cheese Sandwiches ready to go.
For us, the key to a good grilled cheese sandwich is low and slow. Build the sandwich and include plenty of melty cheese. Then just let it cook in the skillet over medium-low heat for 5-6 minutes per side. Oh, and how can I forget the herbed crust? After buttering the bread, we like to sprinkle a bit of Italian seasonings and a pinch of salt on top. As the Italian Grilled Cheese cooks, you end up with one epic outside of the sandwich…and that’s not even including the salami and cheese inside!
Laura whipped up these Italian Grilled Cheese sandwiches as I sat and watched Robbie crawl around the floor. That kid loves a good dog toy. Never mind the fact that he has a zillion baby toys scattered around the floor…he’s got an eagle eye for the dog toy on the other side of the room! So one of us is always on baby duty to make sure Robbie doesn’t actually start chewing on the dog bone. He totally would if he could! Enjoy these Italian Grilled Cheese Sandwiches…we certainly did!
Italian Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Ingredients
- 4 large slices rustic bread
- ½ Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tsp Italian seasonings
- ¼ tsp coarse salt
- 2 slices mozzarella cheese
- 10 slices salami
- 2-3 Tbsp pizza sauce homemade or store-bought
- 2 slices Provolone cheese
Instructions
- Begin by buttering the tops of all 4 pieces of bread. Sprinkle Italian seasonings and coarse salt on top of buttered bread.
- Flip over 2 pieces of bread and top with mozzarella cheese. Add salami, pizza sauce and Provolone cheese. Top with remaining slice of bread.
- Toast sandwiches in a large skillet over medium-low heat for 12-14 minutes, flipping halfway.
Funny thing on the weekends….hubby jokes that we forget to eat lunch and by the time dinner rolls around (which we usually eat later on the weekend) we are famished!! We’ll get up, eat breakfast, be busy doing errands and forget to eat. So, lately I’ve been trying to make a conscious effort to have something. I’ll usually whip up a smoothie, but these sandwiches look deadly! Laura had a good idea using that sauce! Smart lady there 🙂 And I love a good grilled cheese. I mean there is no going wrong with melty cheese, is there??? Too funny about Robbie and the dog toys!!! Hahaha! Have a great weekend!!!
Yeah, I get ya there, Dawn. We always eat lunch, but we tend to err on the lighter side to save room for yummy dinners…especially on weekend nights! But then again, we’ve been doing the whole errands thing and gotten stuck out at lunchtime…and I don’t want to blow my calories for the day on lunch! Know what I mean? These grilled cheese sammiches turned out amazing…and they were kindof an “oops” creation. Haha! Hope your Monday is going well so far, my friend!
that definitely looks like a good grilled cheese!
Oh, it is a good one! Thanks, Manali!
Wonderful idea of stacking the sandwiches!! Sudden Burger cravings can be sorted out!!
Definitely! Thanks so much, Sharmila! 🙂
David! Loving all the flavors you’ve packed in this grilled cheese! love it!
Thank you so much, Gaila! This one kinda turned out by mistake…but it’s so darned tasty! 🙂
WOA – this is one heck of an EPIC grilled cheese sandwich! Dude, your photos are freaking droolicious! Laura’s idea to add sauce to the humble grilled cheese coupled with salami – why – that’s just simply brilliant! I’d never ever thought of that! So, is she gonna get a promotion from being the creative director of spiced to head sous chef or something? 🙂
Gosh – I haven’t had salami in so long and now y’all have me wanting to go chase some down! I hope y’all have a wonderful weekend and manage to keep Robbie away from those dog bones!
Droolicious, eh? I like that word! 🙂 I’ve tried promoting Laura to sous chef, but she keeps telling me that I can’t afford her. Haha! That’s ok, I’ll just keep her as my (free) creative director! We did indeed have a great weekend…I hope you guys did, too. Thanks, Shashi!!
Winter, spring, summer, fall… I don’t care, I’d eat this sandwich anytime. Looks delish!
Why thank you so much, Mindy! I love a good grilled cheese…but then you add marinara and Italian meats? Yeah, that’s a keeper then! 🙂 Thank you so much for swinging by and commenting!
Well, normally I make something more complicated for either weekend lunch or dinner cause that’s the only available time for working on the blog’s content. But we also quite often have some simple stuff (not for blog) which doesn’t mean any time. But I do believe weekend meals still have to be a little different (more delicious and less healthy) from the weekday meals (Because how would you distinguish between the business week and weekend, right?) And these sandwiches look fabulous, David! I’ve got to confess – I’ve never made grilled cheese at home. Honestly, I’ve though it requires some specific equipment (like grill) or advanced techniques. David, why didn’t you inform me long time ago that making grilled cheese is the simplest process ever (Well, the most difficult thing is to wait for 10 minutes, but I can handle this)? I definitely need it in my life ASAP, like today or tomorrow. Probably I need to leave work right now cause what’s the point to be here If I’m going to be thinking about this sandwich for the remaining day:) Well done!
Yeah, I totally get that, Ben! The weekend is a good time to try out fun new recipes that might take a bit longer to make. And, yes, weekend meals definitely need to be more fun! (i.e. not as healthy…but way more delicious) Oh my gosh, you’ve never made a grilled cheese. Stop everything right now. You don’t need anything special at all! We typically use buttered bread over low heat in a skillet. Fill it with all sorta of delicious melty cheeses, and you’ve got yourself a winner! I hope you made grilled cheese this past weekend…and if you didn’t, then put it on the agenda for this weekend!
I love salami and all kinds of cured meats! This looks like heaven, and I might just make it our weekend lunch tomorrow, too 😉
Yes! We are definitely friends then, Bianca. I mean, how can you go wrong with cured Italian meats? Throw in some melty cheese and you’ve got yourself one heck of a grilled cheese sammich! Hope you guys had an awesome weekend! 🙂
The weekends are never predictable for us and lunch is never the same. I love the grilled cheese sandwiches! Laura was brilliant for coming up with this idea! These would be great for a quick dinner too!
I totally agree with you, Kathy. Usually weekdays are more or less planned out, but the weekends are often up in the air. So when we got hungry and opened the fridge, Laura saw all of the ingredients to create an epic grilled cheese sammich. And now I want to make those again…yum!! 🙂
Oh, a good grilled cheese is hard to beat. But add salami and some sauce, sounds perfect. Also love provolone. I got hooked on the stuff when I lived in the states, sadly it is actually hard to come by over here! Still, top notch stuff David!
I agree with you, Matt! A grilled cheese can stand up on it’s own right…but the addition of salami and sauce takes it to a whole new level. And provolone is hard to find over there? I’m surprised at that…I thought you guys would be able to get Italian ingredients (authentic at that!) easier than us. I’ll include some with the Dunkin’ Donuts coffee…haha! 🙂
I’m a sucker for grilled cheese. I don’t eat meat so I can’t indulge in these beauties but my gosh your pictures are making me drool. You always take great pictures, but these pics make me want to jump through the computer screen and devour everything in site. Jalapeño Cheddar Bread Sandwiches, mmmm Yes Please, I want one. I loved left overnight when growing up. So much food gets discarded and forgot about. I hope you have a great weekend.
Hey, you can leave the meat out of these sammiches and still have epic grilled cheeses! The key is using herbs + kosher salt on the outside buttered part of the bread. It adds so much flavor! We did indeed have a great weekend, Mary…I hope you did, too, my friend! 🙂
YES MATE. Low and slow = even, perfect grilled cheeses. Laura is once again at it with genius ideas (I mean, all her taco concepts!).
PS- The concept of grilled cheese is MIA in Australia- they call them ‘toasties’ and it’s a blasphemy!
Yeah, Laura is the epic grilled cheese and quesadilla chef. I get too impatient (i.e. hungry) and then I turn the heat up. And then I burn the sammich/quesadilla. Fail. Wait. They don’t have grilled cheeses in Australia? You need to start the trend! They’re so easy…like the perfect winter comfort food! 🙂
Call me crazy, but one of my favorite things about this sandwich is the Italian seasoning! And the butter. And the salami. And the cheese. And the pizza sauce.
I would never call you crazy, Jeff! You’re too nice of a guy. 🙂 But what I hear you saying is, “Sandwich, get in mah belly!”
I love salami that gets rendered and crispy on the edges, perfect in a sammy and with all this cheese, perfect. Like the pizza sauce add and seasoning on the toasted bread. Classic Dave, nice!
Crispy salami is the best! And then you add that into a sandwich with melty cheese and tasty bread? That’s a hard one to beat…and so easy, too! Thanks, Kevin! 🙂