AM~Erica Makes Grilled Cheese Croutons Italian Style

So anyway...

I don't do too many foody posts here, but I wanted to share this one!

About a month ago was the Ides of March. And some of you may have seen the Caesar Feast I came up with. Well, I found a slight upgrade recently to try!

It turns out that April 12th is National Grilled Cheese Day. Interesting, right? Well, I heard some trivia on April 12th that the (grilled) cheese sandwich originated in Rome. I thought about just adding grilled cheese to the Caesar Feast...but then a lightbulb went off!

Grilled Cheese Croutons for the Caesar Salad (or just a different kind of grilled cheese)!

I wandered around Pinterest to see if I could find a grilled cheese crouton-type recipe. I found out that the croutons being used for soup were simply cubed up pieces of grilled cheese sandwiches. After that, I started coming across a lot of different grilled cheese recipes for the summertime being pinned.

So, here is my Italian Grilled Cheese Croutons with Italian butter:

1. Set oven to 450 degrees F

2. Mix in a small bowl for Italian butter:
1-2 Tbsp freshly ground black pepper
2 palmfuls crushed oregano
1 palmful crushed basil
1 palmful crushed parsley flakes
1 1/2 palmful garlic powder
1 palmful grated parmesan cheese
submerge in EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

3. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray & then use stale bread.

4. Take a short basting brush & "paint" the Italian butter onto one side of the bread.

5. Place the "butter" side down onto the cooking sheet

6. Place 1 slice of either provolone or mozzarella cheese onto the bread. (Sargento has a provolone/mozzarella blend, so that's what I used) Only use 1 slice since you do not want croutons to be over cheesy. If you are making just a sandwich, feel free to use 2 slices.

7. Repeat step 4

8. Place on top of cheese with "butter" side up

9. Once the baking sheet has been covered (the Italian butter lasted enough for 16 slices/8 sandwiches, which just fit my baking sheet), place in the oven for 6-8 minutes

10. Pull out of the oven when the sandwiches start to appear golden brown (mine ended up a hair darker on the bottom side after 7 1/2 minutes, but they turned out fine)

11. Begin to cube the sandwiches into 16 pieces. I began with a knife, but found a pizza cutter to be much more efficient

After I cubed my 8 sandwiches, I ended up with 128 grilled cheese croutons. I tossed them in with our Caesar salad for dinner.

Isn't it beautiful? And everything was SO yummy!

These can be done on the griddle or in a skillet, too...especially if you just want the Italian Butter Grilled Cheese sandwich without cubing them.

So delicious! Enjoy!!

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Update: 6/29/2012


Guess what?? I made this grilled cheese sandwich (so, two slices of cheese) & added a mini Caprese Salad to each one!

Pretty, huh? I took either a cherub or sunburst tomato, a small piece of mozzarella cheese, wrapped a basil leaf around them, skewered the combo with a toothpick & then brushed each mini salad with the Italian Butter.

So pretty, so cute...so tasty!