Grape and Taleggio Grilled Cheese Recipe
To complement the pleasant mustiness of Taleggio cheese, we paired it with grapes bathed in grappa. Delicious for lunch, this sandwich would be equally good cut into rectangles as a quick hors d’oeuvre.
What to buy:
Grappa is a distilled grape liqueur from Italy; it can be found in high-end liquor stores and online. We liked the floral notes of Inga Grappa di Moscato, which doubles as a nice after-dinner drink.
Taleggio is a washed-rind, semisoft cheese from Italy’s Lombardy region.
This recipe was featured as part of our The Most Delicious Sandwiches photo gallery.
- 1/3 cup halved red grapes
- 1 tablespoon grappa
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
- 2 (1/2-inch-thick, 4-by-5-inch-long) slices honey whole wheat bread
- 2 ounces thinly sliced Taleggio cheese
- Combine grapes and grappa in a bowl and let macerate for 15 to 20 minutes. Drain off excess grappa.
- Heat a large frying pan over medium-low heat. Meanwhile, spread butter on 1 side of each slice of bread.
- Once the pan is warm, add 1 slice of bread buttered side down, and top with 1/2 of the cheese, all the grapes, and finally the remaining cheese. Close with the second bread slice, buttered side up.
- Cook until bread is toasted and cheese is melted, about 3 minutes per side.
Beverage pairing: Calera Central Coast Pinot Noir, California. Taleggio can be a strong, musky cheese, so it needs a wine of equal conviction, but with a taste of earthiness itself. That’s why Pinot is a good call, and this well-made wine from California’s Central Coast has all that’s needed to both match the cheese, but also resonate with the grapes.
Funny, you find Grappa only in high end liquor stores over there in the USA, as it used to be a rather downscale liquor made from pomace - the remains after pressing grapes...
You're right. I'm sorry for the unfounded accusation. I misremembered the Post recipe and thought it also featured Taleggio cheese and grapes and was skeptical of the similarity. Here is the recipe, in case anyone is interested:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recipes/2006/08/30/grilled-cheese-champagne-grape-and-red-onion-sandw/
I'm sure yours is delicious, too.
ChristinaMason, It is absolutely against or editorial policy to steal recipes from anyone or anywhere. If we use someone's recipe, we always site the source. In this case, as original as we try to be, it seems we are not the first to put grapes in a grilled cheese sandwich. I'm sure the Post's version is as fantastic as this one!
Amy Wisniewski
CHOW Associate Food Editor
Wasn't this recipe originally featured in the Washington Post? I think you got it from there. Would be appropriate to cite the source, no, rather than taking credit?
Sounds delicious, but do grilled cheese sandwiches travel well? I'm thinking no, so it would definitely have to be a weekend lunch for me.
This definitely sounds like it's worth a try, but I'm with R for D — this does sound rich for a weekday lunch. (Weekends, however...)
This combination also makes me think way, way back to my early childhood when I'd have American cheese sandwiches with grape jelly, always on wheat bread. That was my mom's idea, and she must have been on to something even back then.
That sounds amazingly delicious . . . I usually put green apple slices in all my grilled cheese (great with havarti w/dill) so this would be a fresh alternative. Yum!
CRAAZY!! but I can see this working really well !! YUM!!
It would be a little too rich for lunch ( personally) but great for hors d’oeuvre's.
Nice sandwich, I used a rosemary-garlic sourdough instead, grilled it on a grill pan, for some true to it's name grilled cheese.