Giblin Sheri - Grilled Cheese: 50 Recipes to Make You Melt

The whole world at least wherever they have both bread and cheese loves a grilled cheese sandwich.

In France, grilled cheese may be the rustic casse crotes (midmorning snacks) eaten outdoors by workers in the field, or the chic little grilled truffle and fromage that toute Paris has been nibbling recently. Too, grilled cheese sandwiches are one of Frances national caf treats: croque monsieur. Ranging from simple ham-filled thin white bread topped with cheese and melted, to an extravaganza of excellent cheese, perhaps moistened with a bit of cream, a smudge of bechamel sauce, all melted atop pain aulevain (such as the superb sourdough loaf of Pilane). Croque monsieur is an entire family of grilled cheese sandwich possibilities. Additions such as country ham (croque compagnard), ratatouille or a slice of tomato (croque Provenal), Spanish chorizo (croque seor), or Cantal cheese and country ham (croque Auvergnate) all transform this simple sandwich, as does the classic croque madame, in which the sandwich is topped with a fried egg.

Then there are Italian panini taking the world by storm. A soft roll filled with cheese and a wide variety of meats, spreads, and condiments, pressed between the heavy hot metal plates of the panini press, yields crisp golden bread, filled with gloriously melted cheese.

Across the sea to Florida, Cuban sandwiches are all the rage: hot, flat, oozing cheese, full of cured meats, pickles, and tons of flavorclearly a cousin to the bocadillo I ate in a caf in Ibiza, Spain.

Welsh Rarebit is Englands classic grilled cheese offering: melting, spiced Cheddar on toast. In Umbria melted fontina is cossetted with cream and truffles, and then spooned over bruschettadivine (especially with artichokes). And in a northern Italian vineyard, I joined grape pickers making a late-morning snack of shredded fontina, fresh rosemary, and diced pancetta, smeared atop a doughy flatbread and toasted over an open fire.

And if you happen to come upon a casse crote of Roquefort in Frances southwest, dont miss the chance: Roquefort, Gruyre, and a splash of wine melted onto a toasty baguetteor simply open these pages and make one yourself.

Mexico and Southwest Americas quesadilla, the Indians love affair with pizza (tandoori pizza!), the labna-filled mannakish of Lebanon, and Turkeys cheese-stuffed flatbreads are all versions of the grilled cheese sandwich. Sometimes I think the whole world of bread and cheese needs only to be paired up and melted for another wonderful foray into grilled cheese bliss. The application of heatand sometimes, a brainstorm of creativitytransforms the two most basic foodstuffs, bread and cheese, into a toasty, gooey, and crisp culinary experience.

As hip and varied as grilled cheese sandwiches may be today, when we were growing up, a grilled cheese sandwich was what you had as a rainy-day lunch with tomato soup (unless you were very lucky and your mother decided to make soup and sandwich for supper instead of the usual meat and potatoes). I remember tuna melt with a feeling akin to jubilationmelted cheese with soft creamy tuna salad, snuggled into crisp buttered toasted bread, felt like a celebration instead of a meal.

I know Im not alone in this. For, after eating our way through the worlds street food and ethnic specialties, from sushi and dim sum to tacos and burritos, doro wat, momos, pho, stir-fried tofu, falafel, and pasta fagioli, sitting down to a good ol grilled cheese sandwich is like coming home. Just the thought of it makes me want to run into the kitchen right now, and grill up a taste of familiaritywith a big dose of modern flavors and attitude.

The traditional format of bread + cheese + a hot pan (or hot broiler), with our contemporary variety of cheeses and breads, and savory additions creates dazzling grilled cheese sandwiches.

Coast to coast, the coolest American cafs and bistros present grilled cheese sandwiches, not just as an afterthought, but also as signature dishes.

New Yorks Craftbar serves a wild mushroom, duck prosciutto, and melted Taleggio cheese; in New York, too, Tablas Bread Bar serves grilled tandoori Cheddar; Campanile in L.A. has grilled cheese night and Michael Mina offers lobster grilled cheese at his restaurant Arcadia, in San Jose; in Sonoma, California, The Girl and the Fig offers a grilled cheese sandwich on their lunch menu of the day, and San Franciscos Tartine serves a croque monsieur with bchamel as you seldom find it in Paris these days. But no restaurant matches the devotion to this homey little dish better than Grilled Cheese NYC (Ludlow, near Houston Street), a lunch caf devoted almost entirely to the grilled cheese sandwich. At lunchtime the little room is filled with the happy buzz of grilled cheese sandwich munching.