Roasted Garlic Grilled Cheese is a hearty hot sandwich made with artisan bread, a roasted garlic spread, two kinds of cheese, tomato, and bacon.
ROASTED GARLIC GRILLED CHEESE
This Roasted Garlic Grilled Cheese sandwich brings the sandwich up a notch! It’s made with a homemade roasted garlic spread, both Gruyere and mozzarella cheese, crisp bacon, and tomatoes, all grilled on artisan bread.
ROASTED GARLIC GRILLED CHEESE INGREDIENTS
Garlic: To make the garlic paste and garlic butter, you will roast two heads of garlic. I will explain how to to to that, and trust me, it’s worth it! The mashed garlic adds so much flavor, and there is no garlic butter spread that you can buy that even comes close to the flavor you get with the homemade roasted garlic butter.
Bread: I love using artisan bread in this recipe. You could use ciabatta bread, Italian bread, sourdough bread, or your favorite. It is grilled to a perfectly crispy crust.
Cheese: Gruyere and mozzarella cheese were both added to the sandwich. The cheesier, the better!
Bacon: Crisp bacon tastes delicious on the sandwich, and you can make it ahead of time. I like to bake bacon in the oven. To bake bacon, lay out the slices of bacon onto an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 415°F for 18-20 minutes, or until it reaches your desired crispiness. You can always leave the bacon out of the sandwich as well.
HOW TO ROAST GARLIC
The first thing you will want to do for this recipe is to roast the garlic. It is so easy and it smells (and tastes) amazing! All you need are two heads of garlic and a square of tin foil. Preheat the oven to 400°F as you prepare the garlic.
To roast the garlic, use your fingers to peel away all the loose, papery, outer layers around the head of garlic. Leave the head itself intact with all the cloves connected. Trim about 1/4 inch off the top of the head of garlic, exposing the cloves inside. Drizzle with 2 teaspoons olive oil, letting the oil saturate the cloves. Wrap it up in the square of aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes.
Note: Cooking time will depend on the age of the garlic. Garlic is done cooking when the center clove is soft. Once slightly cooled, the cloves should be tender and should easily pop out of the paper.
GARLIC BUTTER SPREAD
When done, remove the garlic from the oven, open the sealed aluminum foil packet and let it cool a bit. Once cool enough to touch, squeeze out the cloves and discard the remaining skin. Place the garlic in a small bowl and mash it with a fork until it forms a paste.
To make the butter spread, add the softened butter, parsley, salt, and 2 teaspoons of mashed garlic to a bowl. The remaining mashed garlic will be added to slices of bread before cooking for even more garlic flavor!
HOW TO MAKE ROASTED GARLIC GRILLED CHEESE
When you are ready to indulge in this cheesy, garlicky, crusty sandwich, set a pan over medium-low heat. Spread the garlic butter on one side of a piece of bread. Flip over the piece of bread and spread about 1/4 of the remaining mashed garlic on it. Place the slice of bread, butter side down, in the pan.
Top the slice of bread with 1/4 of the Gruyere cheese, 2 slices of tomato, 2 slices of bacon (if using), and 1/4 of the mozzarella cheese. Spread garlic butter over one side of the second piece of bread and place that on top, butter side up. Cook over medium-low heat for 5-7 minutes before flipping the sandwich over and cooking another 5-7 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown. Be patient with the bread browning; the cheese needs time to melt.
Ingredients
Roasted Garlic
- 2 heads garlic, approximately 10 cloves each
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
Butter Spread
- 8 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 tablespoon parsley
- ½ teaspoon salt
Grilled Cheese
- 8 slices white artisan bread, ciabatta, Italian, sourdough
- 1 large tomato, thinly sliced into 8 slices
- 1 cup Gruyere cheese, grated, divided
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated, divided
- 8 slices bacon, cooked crisp, divided
Instructions
Roasted Garlic
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Use your fingers to peel away all the loose, papery, outer layers around the head of garlic. (Leave the head itself intact with all the cloves connected.)
Trim about ¼ inch off the top of the heads of garlic, exposing the cloves inside.
Place garlic in the center of an 8-inch square of aluminum foil.
Drizzle with olive oil, letting the oil saturate the cloves.
Fold the sides of the aluminum foil up to the center and seal (creating a foil packet with the garlic inside). Bake for about 40 minutes or until the garlic cloves are soft and deep golden brown.
Remove the garlic from the oven and carefully open the sealed foil packet to allow the garlic to cool slightly. Once it is cool enough to touch, use your fingers to squeeze out the cloves. Discard the remaining skin.
Place garlic in a small bowl and mash with a fork until the garlic forms a paste.
Butter Spread
In a medium bowl, add butter, parsley, salt, and 2 teaspoons of mashed garlic paste.
Grilled Cheese
Generously spread garlic butter on one side of a slice of bread. Flip over the slice of bread and spread a quarter of the remaining mashed garlic paste.
In a pan over medium-low heat, add bread (butter side down), ¼ cup of the gruyere cheese, 2 slices of tomato, 2 slices of bacon, and ¼ cup of the mozzarella cheese.
Add garlic butter to another slice of bread and place that on top, butter side up.
Cook over medium-low heat for 5-7 minutes; then, flip over the sandwich and cook another 5-7 minutes, or until golden brown. (If it seems like the bread is taking a long time to brown, be patient, as the cheese inside needs time to melt.)
Remove the sandwich from the pan and repeat with the remaining ingredients. (As an option, immediately after removing from the pan, sprinkle additional salt onto the outside of each slice of bread.) Serve warm.
