Outdoor Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Pesto and Tomatoes

 I found this recipe on Hy-Vee.com in meal solutions. It's a Curtis Stone recipe that he contributed to the website as part of his partnership. It orginially had Gruyère cheese and wedge Brie cheese (such as St. Andre), something that we didn't want to buy. We bought some provolone and used up whatever cheese we had left in the fridge. In order to sell this recipe to the husband, I told him that we can put bacon on it.(It has tomatoes in it!)

This was a winner for us. We like how the bread was soft but had a crunch from the grill. The cheese melted well, the tomatoes brought a tangy freshness and the bacon brought it all together. I paired it with  some green beans from the garden and I fried them with some butter and garlic. I'll show how to do that later. Sorry about not having a picture of Barry grilling.


Serves 6.

All you need:
For the pesto:
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 c. (lightly packed; about 1 1/2 ounces) fresh basil leaves, divided
1/4 c. pine nuts, toasted
1/3 c. (about 2 ounces) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 c. extra-virgin olive oil
For the sandwich:
1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cut into 3/4- to 1-inch pieces
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Take and Bake Artisan ciabatta
Provolone Slices
Cooked Bacon slices
Whatever cheese you got left in the fridge
To Make:
      Make pesto, I used my baby food processor and put in the pine nuts, basil, garlic, and Parmesan and whirled it around until all the ingredients where broken down. I then put in the oil until it formed a paste. I  tasted it and added some salt and spun it again tested it again and was happy.. Oh how I love pesto.
     Preheat barbecue for high heat (500°F). I don't grill so Barry did that part.
     Take your chopped up tomatoes and mix it with the balsamic vinegar and set it aside.
     Using a large serrated knife, cut ciabatta. We bought a bag of ciabatta rolls to make it easier and just cut them in half.
     Spread pesto on each half. We then put the bacon on, if you're adding it, I don't know why not. Then the cheese. We layered it with provolone and then the shredded cheeses.
Now it gets a bit out of my league:
     For a 2-burner gas grill, turn 1 burner off and place ciabatta halves, cheese-side-up, on grill rack over unlit burner. For a 3-burner gas grill, turn left and right burners off, leaving center burner on. Place ciabatta halves on grill rack over unlit burners. For a charcoal grill, pile charcoal on 1 side of barbecue and place ciabatta halves atop grill rack on opposite side. Placing ciabatta over unlit burners ensures it doesn’t char too much.

     Close hood and grill until cheese melts and bread is golden brown, about 10 minutes. Avoid opening hood too often in order to maintain heat inside barbecue.
     Transfer sandwich to cutting board. Scatter tomatoes over bottom half of ciabatta; discard juices in bowl.
Cover with top half of ciabatta, cheese-side-down, and press gently.
Inspired by a Curtis Stone recipe from Hy-Vee Recipe Here