Cast Iron Pizza Grilled Cheese Recipe

If you ask most Americans what their favorite childhood comfort food is, they'll likely answer "pizza" or "grilled cheese." But what if you could combine both into one dish? My friends, you'd be looking at sandwich heaven. For a gooey grilled cheese sandwich that tastes just like pepperoni pizza, look no further than our elevated cast iron pizza grilled cheese recipe. You can easily make this sandwich at home in the comfort of your kitchen, and it makes for a great lunch or dinner alongside soup or salad.

According to Ksenia Prints of At the Immigrant's Table, the key to a good, stretchy pizza grilled cheese is using fresh and not shredded or block mozzarella, and using a cast iron pan for the perfect sear and depth of flavor. But even if you don't have one, we still have instructions on how to make it just right at home.

With that illustrious cheese pull and the flavor of marinara sauce, fresh basil, and peppery pepperoni, this pizza grilled cheese is the stuff of legends. Paired with a bowl of homemade tomato sauce and your favorite movie or game night, this recipe is sure to be a home run.

To make this pizza-like grilled cheese, you'll need a jar of your favorite marinara sauce – homemade tomato sauce or store-bought are both good — a good sourdough bread, sliced fresh mozzarella, pepperoni, fresh basil leaves, and butter at room temperature.

Spread marinara on 2 slices of bread.

Layer the mozzarella, pepperoni, and 8 basil leaves on top of the marinara.

Top with the remaining bread.

Spread butter on both sides of each sandwich.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium-low heat.

Cook the sandwiches for 3-4 minutes per side until they're golden and the cheese melts completely.

Rest 1 minute before cutting diagonally.

Garnish with the remaining fresh basil leaves and serve immediately.

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Just like a pizza can be a blank canvas for gourmet toppings, invention, and creativity, so can this pizza grilled cheese sandwich. The important thing is to maintain the pizza building blocks — good sauce, fresh mozzarella, and no more than one or two extra toppings — and cook it properly without overloading the sandwich.

For meat lovers, consider adding in crispy bacon, salami, or prosciutto, or mixing all three. You can take this in a Caprese direction and use pesto instead of marinara sauce, adding in tomato or sundried tomato slices for the red component. If you want to keep it vegetarian, you can add in grilled zucchini, eggplant, or sliced grilled portobellos that you've cooked on the same cast iron pan.

You can even go the vegan route and use plant-based mozzarella and pepperoni for the filling, or gluten-free bread for those who avoid it. Just make sure your grilled cheese holds up well together before grilling it.

From our experience, a low and slow cooking on a cast-iron pan is the best way to get that perfect sear from the caramelized butter on the outside of your grilled cheese, as well as to bring the cheese and toppings to the perfect melting consistency. But if you don't want to buy another kitchen utensil, you can absolutely make this sandwich without a cast iron pan.

A heavy-bottomed stainless steel pan is our second favorite for even heat distribution. Just make sure to avoid cranking up the heat, add the sandwich while the pan is still cold, and slowly warm it up to avoid it sticking to the pan. Stick to a consistent, moderate temperature to let the cheese melt before the bread burns.

Otherwise, a panini press is another perfect solution for making a pressed grilled cheese sandwich with very little effort. You can even wrap your sandwich in parchment paper or aluminum foil to make the clean-up as minimal as possible.

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