RECIPE COUNTDOWN TO 2010: NUMBER 8

NUMBER 8: GRILLED COTSWOLD CHEESE SANDWICH WITH CILANTRO-PARSLEY PESTO

I bought this whole wheat oatmeal bread at The Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley. We brought it home warm and gooey and it inspired a grilled cheese sandwich.

We used Costwold cheese. It is a Double Gloucester (from Gloucestershire, England) cow's milk cheese with chives and onions. It is so unbelievably tasty in sandwiches, on burgers, and in omelettes. It melts beautifully and tastes a lot like cheddar. Some people in England love Costwold cheese so much that they have bumper stickers devoted to it.

I put the cheese, cilantro-parsley pesto, bread, and butter out on a cutting board. Bella helped Dash make the sandwiches and I grilled them. We ate so much of the cheese that we weren't very hungry for the sandwiches.

 

GRILLED COTSWOLD CHEESE SANDWICH WITH CILANTRO-PARSLEY PESTO: printable recipe

for the pesto:

1/2 clove garlic

handful of cilantro leaves

handful of parsley leaves
squeeze of lemon juice
glug of olive oil

1-2 tablespoons of creamy fresh goat cheese

handful of walnuts

big pinch of salt

pepper

sliced bread 
sliced Cotswold cheese (or cheddar)

butter for grilling 

Combine pesto ingredients. You can use a mini cuisinart, a blender, or a mortar and pestle. Or you can chop it all together on the counter. Just make sure you mash the garlic into a paste but everything else can be chunky if you like. Keep tasting the pesto to adjust the flavors. You can make it so that it tastes more like walnuts or more like parsley. It's up to you. For each sandwich, spread one slice of bread with pesto. Place slices of cheese on top. Place second slice of bread on top. Butter both sides of the sandwich. Grill on medium heat. Once you flip the sandwich over, put a heavy lid or pan on top of the sandwiches to press them down like a panini press. It's done when both sides are golden brown and the cheese is melting out the sides.