The recipe calls for crisping country white bread slices in a skillet on one side before topping them with cheese and sautéed shallots. The open-faced halves finish cooking in the oven before being pressed together into a traditional sandwich. It almost pains me that such a simple technique produces such a brilliant result: perfectly golden bread flanking perfectly melty cheese. This discovery made my week. I can finally check “learn how to make a grilled cheese sandwich” off my bucket list and focus on other pressing matters, like “learn how to make pancakes” … if only Lucques served brunch. One final note: This technique would work very well for making grilled cheese for a crowd. All of the bread slices could be browned ahead of time (which would be the only time-consuming step), and the open-faced sandwiches, which cook in 8 minutes, could all be assembled on a sheet pan until game time. Lucques serves this grilled cheese with an apple and arugula salad, the perfect complement to a perfect fall meal. Perfect. Sautéed in butter with fresh thyme, these shallots might just be the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten: Peasant bread makes the best grilled cheese… … really, it does. 5 from 2 reviews Notes: I have never make the apple salad, though it sounds absolutely delicious and the perfect complement for such a sandwich. Also, I go with about 2 oz. of cheese per sandwich, though I can’t imagine 4 oz being so bad. Update: I now brown the bread a little differently thanks to a tip left by Trina — thank you! — in the comments. These changes apply to step 2. First, I spread one half of each slice of bread I with mayonnaise — it doesn’t burn as easily as butter, and the bread browns evenly every time. Second, instead of using butter in the pan, I use about a tablespoon of grapeseed oil — the high smoke point prevents it from burning. Butter, of course, works, but this is my preferred method these days.
2 cups arugula 1/2 apple (such as Pink Lady or Fuji), cut into 1/4-inch slices 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
