For Shortcut Grilled Cheese And Tomato Soup, Grab A Jar Of This At The Grocery Store

Few sandwiches are as comforting and delicious as a simple grilled cheese. While the sandwich is nearly perfect on its own, pairing it with tomato soup is an old standby for making a tasty meal. But soup isn't your only option for a tasty combination. If you want to amp up the tomato flavor, leave the soup in the cupboard and grab a jar of marinara sauce instead. It makes a perfect dip when you're just not feeling like soup, and it packs even more tomato flavor to make your grilled cheese pop. When you're looking for a comfort classic that's a little elevated, grilled cheese with marinara sauce dip is hard to beat.

A traditional marinara doesn't have to be strictly the purview of meatballs or spaghetti. There are plenty of unexpected ways to enjoy marinara sauce, and when you think about it, you already know it goes perfectly with both melted cheese and crusty bread. After all, what are you dipping your mozzarella sticks in? Marinara sauce was made for this.

While tomato soup can have a warm, creamy, comforting appeal, warm marinara sauce served with grilled cheese is more intensely tomato flavored and gives a heartier contrast to the savory, melty cheese in your sandwich. If you're looking for more of a flavor punch, it's well worth a try.

Instead of opening a can of soup and heating it, just pop open your favorite sauce (ours is Rao's) and pour it into a bowl or ramekin. When selecting a bowl, keep in mind how big your sandwich is if you want to dip it, and make sure it's large enough to fit a corner of your sandwich. Then you can warm the sauce quickly in the microwave or have it cold if you want that temperature contrast. It's great as is, with the rich tomato flavor and a bit of sweetness complementing the crispy, cheesy, salty sandwich — but you can also get creative with it.

If you want to indulge in the Italian roots of the sauce, some fresh garlic or basil mixed in can elevate the experience. You could also try adding chili flakes or even hot sauce if you'd rather have some heat with your grilled cheese. Of course, you could double down on your cheese with some freshly grated Parmesan in the sauce.

Since marinara sauce is typically thicker than tomato soup, you're going to get a stronger, tomato-flavored bite each time because more sauce will cling to the bread. If you've never tried it before, you might come to believe that marinara is superior to tomato soup on the side of a grilled cheese. Try one of these great grilled cheese recipes and see for yourself the difference marinara makes.