Celebrating National Grilled Cheese Month with American cheeses expert Laura Werlin

April is National Grilled Cheese Month. Cheese cookbook author Laura Werlin shares her thoughts on the iconic comfort sandwich as well as tips for making great grilled cheese. And yes, she shares a recipe too.

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Laura Werlin is an ambassador for American cheeses and author of six cookbooks on the subject. She won the prestigious James Beard award for The All American Cheese and Wine Book, published in 2003. To celebrate National Grilled Cheese Month, we caught up with the San Francisco-based Werlin to talk about her favorite subject.

BK: First things first, Laura. What do you think made you go from just being an avid cheese lover—as many of us are—to becoming an authority on cheese? And how did you make the leap?

LW: I didn’t set out to become an authority on cheese and I certainly wasn’t one when I started writing about it. Instead, all I wanted was to write about the great new cheeses being made in America and the people who were making them. This became my first book, The New American Cheese.

The way I approached that book was a combination of perseverance and naïveté. I think if I’d known how hard it would be to write that book, I might never have done it. I’m grateful I didn’t know!

My foray into writing about cheese began after I’d transitioned from my career in television news to food writing. Not long after getting my first articles published, I knew what I wanted most was to write about my passion, which was cheese. The rest followed.

BK: There’s an entire month devoted to grilled cheese sandwiches. And you’ve written not one, but two cookbooks on the subject. Why do you think we love grilled cheese so much?

LW: I’ve thought about this a lot. What is it about grilled cheese? I think the reason we swoon with just the mention of the words “grilled cheese” is because it evokes memories of our childhood. This, combined with one of the worlds greatest sensory experiences—hot, melty cheese encased between two slices of crisp, buttery bread and can’t-get-enough aromas—appeals to the kid as well as adult in all of us. Few, if any, foods straddle the memory/good food line like grilled cheese does.

BK: With your two grilled cheese cookbooks—Grilled Cheese, Please! and Great Grilled Cheese—you share 100 different grilled cheese sandwich recipes. You love them all, of course, but what would be your “desert island” grilled cheese sandwich, the one you would choose if you could only eat that one from now on?

LW: This is definitely a tough question because you’re right—I love all of them. In the end, though, I’d probably choose my Double Cheddar with Tomato Jam sandwich (recipe below). This sandwich is super cheesy because not only is there cheese on the inside of the sandwich, but there’s also cheese and butter on the outside of the bread. The addition of tomato jam makes it taste like a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup all in one bite. It really doesn’t get any better than that.

BK: What are some tips for making great grilled cheese at home?

LW: I’m quite the stickler when it comes to techniques for making a grilled cheese sandwich correctly. After having made hundreds of them, here are a few of those:

• Grate the cheese, don’t slice it
• Butter the bread, not the pan
• Use a nonstick pan
• Cover the sandwich for most of the cooking (this will melt the cheese faster and because of that, prevent the bread from burning)
• Let the sandwich sit for 5 minutes before digging in (this allows the sandwich to cool down just enough to be able to taste all the delectable flavors)

BK: And what are some mistakes to avoid?

LW: I’m always amazed when restaurants or even home cooks make grilled cheese sandwiches on thick bread. This is counterintuitive to me because a grilled cheese sandwich should be about the cheese, not the bread. Consequently, I caution against using bread that’s any thicker than about a half-inch. This isn’t to say you can’t make a great grilled cheese sandwich using baguette or ciabatta. You can. But to do that you need to pull out some of the center to create the proper bread-cheese ratio.

Also, I’ve seen grilled cheese sandwiches in which the cheese isn’t fully melted. What’s the point? That’s just a cheese sandwich, not a grilled cheese sandwich. This brings me back to one of my tips, which is to grate the cheese. That’ll ensure there’s no semi-melted cheese.

Finally, people often put butter or oil in the pan and not on the bread. This doesn’t usually work very well because the bread will act like a sponge and simply sop up the butter in splotches or wherever the butter is. It won’t be coated evenly and therefore won’t taste as good.

BK: In The All American Cheese and Wine Book, you talk a lot about pairing wine and cheese. A grilled cheese is generally seen as fairly humble comfort food. What are some ways you might dress it up, maybe even make it something to pair with a glass of wine? And what wines would you choose?

LW: There are a zillion ways to gussy up a grilled cheese sandwich. If there weren’t I don’t think I could have written two books on the subject! Almost anything in the produce section of the supermarket can happily find its way into a grilled cheese sandwich—mushrooms, arugula, apples, herbs, eggplant, broccoli, berries—you name it. Likewise, most meats can be used to enhance a grilled cheese sandwich. Everything from roast turkey to rotisserie chicken to prosciutto to bacon (of course) to short ribs will work.

Once you’ve added any of these things, you can pick wines accordingly. For example, if there’s bacon and cheddar in the sandwich, then think about a wine that would go with bacon—maybe a syrah or zinfandel. If there are mushrooms, then maybe a pinot noir or perhaps a rosé. Or if there’s broccoli or another green vegetable, then a sauvignon blanc or chardonnay would probably be the way to go.

The best across-the-board grilled cheese wine partner, though, is sparkling wine. In my opinion, you can’t go wrong with sparkling wine anytime.

BK: Last question. Do you ever have a day without cheese?

LW: No! I eat cheese every day. It’s different every day too, because I have so many in my fridge that usually I can have one, two or three each day without repeating any I’ve had the day or two (or more) before.

Right now, I’m really excited about a new cheese that will be hitting the market in June. It’s made by California pioneer goat cheese company, Laura Chenel’s Chèvre, and is called Buchette. It’s a mini-log of ultra creamy goat cheese with a beautiful, wrinkly rind; it tastes like lemon cheesecake. You can get it two ways—with an ash-coated rind, appropriately called Ash Coated Buchette, and a plain rind, called Original Buchette. Not only do I love this cheese, I love how it represents the spectacular cheeses being developed in America every day. This is what excites me most of all.

To find out more about Laura Werlin, visit her website.

Recipe: Double Cheddar Grilled Cheese with Tomato Jam

This recipe appears in Laura’s book Grilled Cheese Please!, published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. In fact, it’s featured on the cover. The tomato jam is based on one she got years ago from Chef Charles Dale, now the chef at Encantado Resort in Santa Fe. He may not have had grilled cheese sandwiches in mind when he created the recipe, but Laura is pretty certain he’d wholeheartedly approve of its use for just that purpose. You’ll have more jam than you need for one batch of sandwiches. It’s also great with salmon or on burgers.

Double Cheddar Grilled Cheese with Tomato Jam
Makes 4 sandwiches, with extra Tomato Jam

12 ounces cheddar cheese
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
8 sandwich-size slices sourdough
6 tablespoons Tomato Jam (recipe follows)

Using the very small holes of a box grater or other similar-size grating device, finely grate 4 ounces of the cheddar. Place the cheese in a small bowl. Add the butter and, using the back of a fork, mash the mixture until the cheese is well incorporated into the butter. Set aside. Using the large holes of a box grater or other similar-size grating device, grate the remaining cheese.

Spread the cheddar-butter mixture on one side of each of the bread slices. Place 4 slices of bread, buttered side down, on your work surface.  Spread 1-1/2 tablespoons of jam on each slice. Distribute the cheese, and top with remaining bread slices, buttered side up.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over a medium heat for 2 minutes. Put the sandwiches into the pan (working in batches, if necessary), cover and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until golden brown. Turn the sandwiches, pressing each one firmly with a spatula to flatten slightly. Cover and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the undersides are well browned (watch carefully because the cheese on the outside of the bread can darken quickly). Turn the sandwiches once more, press firmly with the spatula again, cook for 1 minute, and remove from the pan. Let cool for 5 minutes. Cut in half and serve.

Tomato Jam

6 large ripe tomatoes (about 1-1/2 pounds) peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped (use Roma tomatoes if it isn’t tomato season or 1 28-ounce can peeled Roma or San Marzano tomatoes, drained and seeded, or 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2-1/2 tablespoons sugar (if you’re making this in the middle of tomato season when tomatoes are at their sweetest, reduce the sugar by 1 to 2 teaspoons)
salt

Place all the ingredients in a medium-size saucepan over medium-low heat. The mixture should bubble ever so slightly but not boil. Cook for about 1 hour, or until the jam has thickened and most of the liquid has evaporated. Let cool. (You can make this up to 1 week in advance. Store in the refrigerator.)