Saltimbocca Grilled Cheese

I’ve made a lot of grilled cheeses in my day.

I even went through a phase where it was my standard lunch.

While the standard is good, it’s sometimes fun to really spice up a grilled cheese and see what you can do with it. While a lot of times this means changing the filling of the sandwich, you can also change the outside.

There’s a traditional Italian preparation for chicken called saltimbocca where you put a thin layer of prosciutto on the chicken before cooking it. The cool thing about this is that the prosciutto gets super-crispy.

Turns out this works great for a grilled cheese also. It’s almost like wrapping your grilled cheese in very thin, very crispy bacon.

That’s why the saltimbocca grilled cheese is worth trying.

This sandwich isn’t particularly hard to make. Actually, the cooking part of it might be easier than a normal grilled cheese.

Sage is the classic herb for saltimbocca and it works great with grilled cheese, but you could use any fresh herb really.

When it comes to bread, I recommend a nice sturdy loaf. You can either buy a nice sourdough loaf or try something like Pillsbury Simply French Bread.

Regardless of what bread you use, butter each slice well and then lay down your herbs right on the butter.

Then take your thin layers of prosciutto and press them right onto the butter and herbs. You should be able to see the herbs through the prosciutto.

Press on the prosciutto lightly just so it sticks.

Obviously, you’ll need some cheese for this sandwich. I used a nice sharp cheddar, but feel free to get creative. Almost any cheese would be delicious with this.

When you’re ready to start cooking the sandwich, just lay one piece of bread, prosciutto side down into a large nonstick skillet.

Then top it with a good amount of cheese.

Then top it with the second slice of bread, prosciutto side up. So the prosciutto is on both outer sides of the sandwich.

Cook this over medium heat for about 4-5 minutes per side. Be careful when you flip it so you don’t rip the prosciutto off the sandwich.

The sandwich will be perfect after probably 8-10 minutes of cooking. The cheese should be melted and the prosciutto should be super crispy. It’s okay if it shrinks a bit while cooking.

I like to slice my sandwich in half and also serve it with a simple soup, like tomato.

Considering there’s very little additional work for this version over a normal grilled cheese, the payoff is huge. The finished sandwich has this nice herby flavor and the crispy prosciutto just takes it over the edge.

If you’re a grilled cheese lover (who isn’t) you have to try this!

Nick thinks that saltimbocca should be a verb, like: I saltimboccaed my shoe and it was delicious. Be sure to check out his blog, Macheesmo, and his Tablespoon profile!