BLT Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Fancy Style

I almost hit you with another mile long recipe title.

So I decided to save you about three whole minutes by swapping out – ‘sundried tomato pesto, peppered bacon, spinach, Fontina cheese and honey roasted garlic mayo’ for the word “fancy”.

As my final sammie for Grilled Cheese Month, the Sun-dried Tomato and Walnut Pesto has asked me to create one ooey gooey sandwich featuring, you guessed it cheese. Wellllll of course I picked my go-to cow’s milk cheese to slap in between bread and grill: Fontina.

I wanted to take a familiar sandwich [the BLT] and fancify it by using sundried tomato pesto, peppered slab bacon, baby spinach [instead of regular iceberg] and I also whipped up a killer honey roasted garlic mayo to bring it all home. Oh yeah and I sandwiched it all between thick slices of sourdough bread, baby.

As if you need another post dedicated to showing you how to build a grilled cheese, I know. However, I cannot resist. Plus, who doesn’t love watching food being made?

So sundried tomato pesto is pretty magical. It’s great tossed with hot pasta, on toasted slices of baguette and now… grilled cheese sammiches.

I whipped up my sundried tomato walnut pesto that I made almost two years ago. I didn’t have any fresh basil so I skipped it this time. Still it’s pretty standout.

And then I grated up 6 ounces of Fontina cheese. The more the merrier, right?

The mayo. Ohhhh this mayo. Honey roasted garlic is pretty simple and pretty flipping standout. I first saw it on Amy Thielen’s show Heartland Table on Food Network and I pretty much have been obsessing about it ever since.

Basically you place two heads of garlic [top third of the garlic head lobbed off] into an oven safe dish, drizzle them with about a tablespoon of honey each, cover with foil and roast in your preheated 375° oven for about 45 minutes. Remove the garlic from the oven, use tongs to remove the roasted heads of garlic to a clean bowl to cool. Once cool enough to handle, squeeze out those little jewels of goodness right into a bowl. Cool completely before mixing with a half cup of mayo.

I bought a big, fat loaf of sour dough and sliced them extra thick.

Then I slathered one side of each slice of bread with 1/2 tablespoon butter

… topped two of the un-buttered sides of bread with 1 tablespoon or so of the sun-dried tomato pesto.

Top with 1/4 cup Fontina.

…A handful of baby spinach…

… stack up the crispy, thick slices of peppered bacon… about 4 slices. Oh, per sandwich. Yes.

Another 1/4 cup Fontina…

Then griddle until golden and glorious. Buttered bread meet griddle, it’s a fine thing. I used a domed lid to cover the sandwich and help speed up the cheese melting process.

I normally don’t recommend this, but one whole sandwich can be a shared among two people. Of course you don’t have to listen to me. I mean it’s not like I shared this with anyone. But it is one mamma-jamma of a sandwich that you may need to unhinge your jaw for it. Only sayin’.

Fancy BLT grilled cheese sandwiches are my regular!

Hello there, fine-looking. Carb-coma here I come.

Enjoy! And if you give these Fancy BLT Grilled Cheese Sandwiches a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!

My cookbook: 120 Wholesome From-scratch Recipes Made Unfussy is now available! CLICK HERE for details and THANK YOU in advance!

[this post contains affiliate links.]