Fontina And Mozzarella Grilled Cheese With Bacon And Honeycrisp Apples Recipes

HONEYCRISP APPLE, CHEDDAR, BACON AND BITTER GREENS SANDWICH

Steps:

• Preheat a griddle over medium-high heat.
• Lay the bacon strips on the griddle. Cook the bacon until browned and crisp. Drain the bacon on paper towels and reserve the bacon fat.
• To build your grilled cheese, place 1/4 cup of the cheese on the bottom of a slice of bread. Top with 2 slices bacon, 4 slices apple, some arugula, 1/4 cup more of the cheese and another slice of bread. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.
• Spread each side of the sandwich with some of the butter. Griddle until the bread is toasted, golden brown and delicious, 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Cut each sandwich into 4 pieces and serve.

HONEYCRISP APPLE, CHEDDAR, BACON AND DANDELION CROSTINI

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Add about 1 tablespoon olive oil to a large saute pan. Lay the bacon strips in the pan and bring the pan to a medium heat. Cook the bacon until browned and crisp. Drain the bacon on paper towels. DO NOT ditch the bacon fat. Reserve it for finishing the crostini.
• Toast the bread slices lightly on both sides in the oven. Remove the toast from the oven and arrange a thin layer of the sliced apples on each toast. Top the apples with the cheese and return the toasts to the oven. Bake the crostini until the cheese starts to melt and get bubbly, 5 to 7 minutes.
• Place 2 bacon strips on each crostino and return to the oven for 1 to 2 minutes.
• While the crostini are doing their final toast, ditch about half the bacon fat. Heat the remaining bacon fat in the pan and whisk in the vinegar. Turn the heat off and toss in the dandelion greens, season with salt and stir to coat the greens with the vinaigrette.
• Remove the crostini from the oven, cut the bread in half and then top with the wilted dandelion greens.

TALEGGIO BACON AND APPLE GRILLED CHEESE

Steps:

• Toss the Taleggio in the freezer for 20 minutes to get it really nice and firm (don't forget about it!). Remove the orange rind and cut the cheese into slices about 1/4 inch thick.
• While the cheese is in the freezer, cook the bacon in a large saute pan over medium heat until brown and crispy on both sides, then transfer it to a plate lined with paper towels and reserve.
• Spread each piece of bread with a thin, even layer of mayonnaise or butter. Spread the other side of each piece of bread with Dijon. Lay the bread down on a baking sheet with the Dijon side facing up. It will be a bit messy. This is what happens with grilled cheese! The mess is worth it.
• Place an even layer of Taleggio on each piece of bread. Lay 3 bacon slices each on 4 pieces of the Taleggio-lined bread. Top the bacon with an even layer of apple slices (these are the bottoms, the ones with just cheese are the tops-together they make a pair!).
• Preheat a griddle or nonstick saute pan to medium. You will most likely have to work in batches, so also preheat the oven to 200 degrees F to keep the finished sandwiches warm. Place pairs of tops and bottoms (not yet sandwiched together) on the griddle or in the nonstick pan and cook until the underside gets brown and crusty and the cheese begins to melt, 5 to 7 minutes. Flip the tops onto the bottoms so the cheese is on the inside. Give each sandwich a press, flip it over, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more. Keep the finished sandwiches in the oven and repeat the process with the remaining tops and bottoms.

MOZZARELLA GRILLED CHEESE

Steps:

• Assemble sandwich by smearing insides of bread slices with pesto. Arrange a layer of sliced tomato and season with a few turns of fresh pepper. Layer the mozzarella slices over the top and then place another piece of bread on top to make the sandwich. Drizzle olive oil over skillet's surface and place sandwiches on the hot skillet or panini press. If using a skillet, place another heavy skillet over the top to form a "press". Turn after 2 to 3 minutes and replace weight. The sandwich is ready when golden brown and mozzarella has melted around the edges.
• Toast pine nuts in a skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Combine pesto ingredients in a food processor and pulse until well combined but still rough-textured. If you have a panini press, turn it on to warm up; otherwise, set a cast iron skillet over medium heat.