{"id":1879,"date":"2012-06-11T13:29:39","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T18:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/?p=1879"},"modified":"2012-06-11T13:29:39","modified_gmt":"2012-06-11T18:29:39","slug":"grilled-cheese-pesto-sandwich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/?p=1879","title":{"rendered":"Grilled Cheese Pesto Sandwich"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got to know Pesto just these past few years , before that i had no clue what pesto was. The name itself seemed a little strange , then when i found out , it’s green paste of something .. which wasn’t that much appetizing for me .. i didn’t bother to give it a try . Although i should have !! I always told my son , you have to try everything , you can decide whether you like it or not , later on , as long as you give it a shot . Well that didn’t apply to me with pesto .<\/p>\n

Until 1 day i was at my friend’s house , our children was having a playdate , and since we’re guest , she’s making us lunch . That’s when i got to know pesto . I had no choice but to try it , and since then i’ve fallen in love with awesome yummy pesto .<\/p>\n

What is pesto actually anyway ? Pesto is made from fresh basil leaves , with pine nuts , and garlic , and olive oil along with grated fresh parmesan cheese at the end . You could buy it at the store which i do during winter time because our basil plant wouldn’t survive midwest winter . But during summer months , oh , we’re having a blast with making pesto . Basil loves warm weather , they can’t stand cold , esp. frost , it will kill them . And i usually just make fresh pesto myself , basil leaves , the only down side about the cost of making your own pesto is the pine nuts , known as pignoli . They’re costly , but if you can find a place that can sell you in bulk i guess that would be a good way to do it .<\/p>\n

Anyway .. here is a recipe for my pesto sandwich .<\/p>\n

For Pesto : <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>2 cups of fresh basil leaves , make sure you pack this down , then washed and dried with paper towel .<\/p>\n

1\/4 cup of pine nuts<\/p>\n

2 garlic cloves<\/p>\n

1\/2 tsp. of salt<\/p>\n

2\/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil ( good one )<\/p>\n

1\/2 cup of fresh parmesan cheese<\/p>\n

In a food processor , mix basil leaves, pine nuts , and garlic, salt , pulse until the mixture become very pasty . While it’s still running , add the olive oil , keep pulsing til mixture becomes smooth . Then add parmesan cheese ( fresh and grated ) , mix well . If you intend to freeze this pesto , place the pesto mixture in the container , then add a layer of olive oil on top and cover tightly .<\/p>\n

Now on the sandwiches<\/p>\n

2 slices of bread of your choice , wheat , white , sourdough .. etc<\/p>\n

few slices of turkey , salami , or ham<\/p>\n

pesto<\/p>\n

cheese , i use monterey jack cheese , but u can use provolone , muenster , etc<\/p>\n

This is before being grilled :<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Then just assemble , your sandwich , then spread pesto , add cheese on top , the meat , and more cheese and top with the other slice of bread . Place in a panini maker if you have it , if you don’t , skillet will work just fine . Melt a little butter , then place the sandwich on top for few minutes under low medium heat so it won’t burn your sandwich while melting the cheese , then turn it over , do the same . Once it’s done , cut 1 clove of garlic into half and then rub the garlic clove on the surface of the grilled sandwich , and it’s ready to serve !!<\/p>\n

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easy pesto grilled cheese sandwich ! s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":1881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-1879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-main-dishes","category-main-dishes-recipes","tag-sandwich-pesto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1882,"href":"https:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1879\/revisions\/1882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oliviaskitchen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}