The toasted sandwich

I had a friend ask me for a recipe on a cheese toasted sandwich that I served with a tomato soup, and I felt the context for how to cook a toasted sandwich would be useful.

The recipe was from Andy Cooks:

However the soup recipe was a baked fetta recipe that I saw on tiktok.

@feelgoodfoodie

This roasted feta soup is inspired by the butternut squash I made a few months ago, but this one is made with red peppers and tomatoes. Its so creamy and so good! INGREDIENTS 1 (8-ounce) feta chunk 1 red pepper, chopped 3 Roma tomatoes, chopped 1 onion, chopped 2 sprigs rosemary 1 bulb garlic, sliced at the top Freshly cracked black pepper ¼ cup olive oil 4 cups vegetable broth INSTRUCTIONS Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the feta, peppers, tomatoes, onion, rosemary and garlic in on the prepared sheet pan. Season everything with black pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and the feta is melty. Remove the roasted garlic bulb and set aside until cool enough to handle. Transfer the roasted vegetables and feta into a blender. Carefully squeeze the roasted garlic into the blender and add the vegetable broth. Blend for 2 minutes, or until smooth and creamy. Serve with grilled cheese for the best combo!

♬ original sound – Feel Good Foodie

What goes into a toastie?

However I feel like this doesn’t really explain the how and why of what goes into a Toastie. There is a difference for when I’m making myself one vs when I’m making one for guests as part of entertaining.

Kenji Alt-Lopez is like the food science mecha when it comes to the why. His book; The Food lab is a great explainer into the why of tasty food. Here is his recipe:

Bread

I like to use sourdough, but generic white bread is fine. Kenji likes to use Japanese style thick cut bread.

Cheese

I like to use a pre shredded mozerala plus cheddar when cooking for guests. If it’s just myself I’ll skip the cheddar as I’m trying to reduce fat in my diet (I don’t have a gall bladder and too much fat doesn’t agree with me the next day).

Plastic cheese is fine. I like to use 1.5 to 2 slices per toastie if I want something that reminds me of childhood.

Fat

Some sort of food lube for browning the bread is pretty useful. Butter, margarine, mayonaise and cooking spray are all fine.

I’ve recently switched to cooking spray because it helps me reduce fat, still gets a good brown and I don’t need to dirty a knife to apply it to bread.

I use mayonaise when entertaining, it’s a lot easier to spread then butter.

Fat goes on the outside of the bread, not on the inside.

Cooking surface

I use a sandwich press but with the setting open a little so it doesn’t squish everything out of my bread

Other fillings

You can use hommus instead of cheese, it won’t have the same stretch but when I’ve tried to have more vegan meals it’s been fine.

I’ve recently been adding spinach fetta mix with kimchi in my toasties recently.

Other recipe’s

Frank is also a good rescource for taking food to the next level. His toastie is different yet again.

How do you make your cheese toastie?