This is a continuation of an ongoing competition I’m having with myself to find the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich. I got this idea from a comment on my previous attempt at a good grilled cheese (Thanks Phil!). It’s been a while since my last post but I made a note that I wanted to try this. This is the pesto and brie grilled cheese:

This sandwich is not terribly hard. I guess the hardest part is making the pesto. You could totally buy it if you wanted, but I never think that store-bought pesto has quite the kick that homemade can have.

Pesto and Brie Grilled Cheese

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Author: Nick Evans
Servings: 2 Servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
A simple pesto grilled cheese on sturdy sourdough with lots of gooey brie cheese.

Ingredients 

Pesto:

  • ½ cup basil
  • 4 Tablespoons olive oil, adjust to your taste/texture
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • Handful of pecans
  • 2 Tablespoons cilantro
  • Salt and Pepper

Grilled Cheese:

  • 4 sturdy slices bread
  • 8 ounces brie, rind removed
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • Pesto

Instructions

  • For pesto, pulse ingredients in a food processor and drizzle in olive oil. Pulse until it forms a rough paste. If you don’t have a little food processor you can finely chop the ingredients.
  • Lightly butter your four pieces of bread and cut the rind off of the brie cheese. Cut it into slices.
  • Slather each bread piece with pesto on the non-buttered side.
  • Add two slices of bread, butter side down to a pan over medium heat. Top each piece with brie and add the second piece of bread, butter side up.
  • Cook sandwich for about 3-4 minutes per side until browned lightly and the cheese is melted.
  • Serve it up while hot!

Nutrition

Serving: 1Sandwich | Calories: 888kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 30g | Fat: 73g | Saturated Fat: 31g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 33g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 144mg | Sodium: 981mg | Potassium: 293mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 1366IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 301mg | Iron: 3mg
Course: Sandwiches

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @crunchtimekitchen

This is pretty cheap pesto for me to make as I usually have some ingredients lying around for a pesto. The only thing I bought for this was the cilantro (we have a small basil plant that keeps us happy in that department). There are tons of pesto substitutions you can use. Instead of pecans try pine nuts. Instead of cilantro, try parsley. Or leave them out.

Don’t stress about it. It will be delicious. I don’t think I’ve ever made the exact same pesto twice.

Add these things to the basil.
Add these things to the basil.

Anyway, once you have all of these things, give them a few pulses in your processor. If you don’t have a food processor, I guess you could very finely chop up the ingredients and then stir it together with the olive oil. That would be much more work though obviously.

Very simple. Very delicious.
Very simple. Very delicious.

The second part of this sandwich is the brie. This makes this sandwich a bit expensive, but man is it good. I found an 8 ounce wheel of brie for $6. I was actually planning on using Mozzarella but they were out so I went with this. Either would work I think.

8 ounces of love.
8 ounces of love.

The thing about brie is that it is supposed to be eaten as a spread. It is really soft and kind of awkward to work with. I cut off the rind on my wheel and then tried to slice up the stuff. This amount of cheese made two large sandwiches.

Slicing brie is not the easiest task in the kitchen.
Slicing brie is not the easiest task in the kitchen.

The third ingredient in this equation is the bread. I went with a nice sourdough which was a good choice. It held up perfect to the filling. I think sourdough may be the perfect grilled cheese bread actually because it cooks really evenly and doesn’t burn as quickly as white bread. At the same time, it doesn’t overpower the filling like a rye bread would do.

Butter up one side well on four slices.

This is my bread and butter.
This is my bread and butter.

Then flip over each piece and slather on the pesto. You want pesto on the top and the bottom! My fear at this step was that this would be too pesto-y. Nope. It was awesome.

Don't be afraid of the slather technique.
Don’t be afraid of the slather technique.

Then I used my pan as a place to build my sandwich. Piled in my brie and put on the top piece.

This pan is not on yet... just using it to assemble.
This pan is not on yet… just using it to assemble.

Cook these guys on medium heat until the brie is melted and the bread is nice and brown.

Holy Pesto.
Holy Pesto.

Ranking:

Cheesiness: 8. Brie is just a lovely cheese for a sandwich. It melts quickly and is very gooey and delicious.
Bread: 10. I don’t think I can beat the bread on this sandwich as far as grilled cheese goes. I’m going to keep trying, but this was supreme.
Fillings: 8. Pesto was perfect and flavorful and complimented the cheese well.
Overall: 9. This is going to be a tough sandwich to beat.

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