This tomato grilled cheese sandwich is loaded with fresh mozzarella, basil pesto and parmesan. It’s perfect for a quick and easy lunch!
If you think about it, tomato in a grilled cheese totally makes sense. After all cheese and tomato is a marriage made in heaven. A plain tomato grilled is good, but here I’ll offer some tips to turning it from good to great. With the help of a few other goodies this sandwich is bound to be one of your new faves! Follow me…
Tomato Grilled Cheese
As you can imagine this sandwich is fairly straight forward to make. Let’s quickly cover the 3 basics:
What Cheese to use?
I like to use two cheeses in this sandwich. First is mozzarella, mainly for its gooey goodness, but also to give the sandwich a kind of Caprese vibe. The second is parmesan, just to add in a punch of flavour.
What Bread to use?
Because the centre of the sandwich can be quite moist (from the tomato & pesto), you want a nice sturdy bread to contain the filling. If you can get your hands on it, here I’ve used a crusty sea salt and black pepper bloomer. It works really nice and adds a boost of flavour too. Sourdough or Italian bread is always a good choice.
What Tomatoes to use?
In reality you can use any tomato, just make sure they’re good quality and as fresh as possible for the best flavour. I personally prefer large slices, so opt for fresh vine-ripened tomatoes. Beef tomatoes always work well. You could even use cherry tomatoes or baby plum tomatoes though if you fancied! They just might not be as well contained in the sandwich that’s all.
Process shots: butter bread (photo 1), flip (photo 2), add mozzarella (photo 3), add tomato (photo 4), drizzle pesto (photo 5), sprinkle parmesan (photo 6), add buttered bread (photo 7), turn on heat and fry both sides (photo 8).
Tomato Grilled Cheese with Pesto
The pesto really takes the sandwich to new heights. It oozes into the cheese and offers a gorgeous pop of flavour and colour. It also of course compliments the tomato very nicely!
What can I sub the pesto with?
I highly recommend using pesto, but if you haven’t got it add some fresh basil leaves. Failing that a few pinches of dried basil will work just fine. You could even change the flavour profile slightly and go full caprese and use fresh basil with balsamic vinegar/balsamic glaze!
What can I add to a Tomato Grilled Cheese?
I’ve personally tried this sandwich with bacon, which works well. As does avocado. Anything past that you’re on your own 🤪
Serving a Tomato Grilled Cheese
- Crisp/Chip Recommendation: Cheese and Onion works nicely, as does Roast Chicken flavour.
- Side Recommendation: Spice things up with some Spicy Wedges or keep it cool and creamy with some Coleslaw. You could even dunk it into a Roasted Red Pepper Soup!
Alrighty, let’s tuck into the full recipe for this tomato grilled cheese sandwich shall we?!
How to make a Tomato Grilled Cheese (Full Recipe & Video)
Tomato Grilled Cheese
Equipment
- Large Frying Pan & Spatula/Turner
- Sharp Knife & Chopping Board
- Paper Towels
- Fine Cheese Grater
Ingredients
Instructions
- Butter one side of each of your slices of bread. Place 3 of them butter-side-down in a pan with the heat OFF (or 2 if that's all you can fit). Top with 3 wedges of mozzarella per sandwich, followed by 3 slices of tomato, topped with a drizzle of pesto and finish with parmesan.
- Top with second slice of bread butter-side-up. Turn heat to a medium and fry both sides until golden brown with the mozzarella nice and gooey. Repeat with last sandwich if necessary then slice in half and enjoy!
Quick Demo
Notes
Your Private Notes:
Nutrition:
For more grilled cheese sandwiches check out these beauties:
If you loved this Tomato Grilled Cheese Recipe be sure to Pin it for later! Already made it or got a burning question? Give me a shout in the comments below!
Pesto on grilled cheese?! That is GENIUS! Your grilled sandwich looks so good I wish I could reach in and grab it…definitely making!
Wow this looks off the charts who could resist not eating this beautiful cheesy sandwich!
Ohhhh this looks so good – like a bite of summer sunshine on a cold, gray January day! And I’m so glad you mentioned what bread you used and gave suggestions for others that might work well. As soon as I saw your first picture, I wondered what bread you’d used because it looks so fantastic!
No more plain boring grilled cheese sandwiches for me. These are epic!