I know. You're wondering what in the world Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and grilled cheese could possibly have in common. I mean, they probably ate them at some point but besides that assumption, it seems ridiculous to pair them. Unless you want to write about a grilled cheese sandwich you made last week.
In all fairness, this didn't come from my brain. The geniuses at
Melt Bar & Grilled, a
grilled cheese restaurant for crying out loud, partner with a nearby theater to have regular movie nights. They design sandwiches to accompany the flicks. Yeah, they've got serious smarts. For a showing of the movie about the coolest turtles ever, they fashioned a pizza roll melt! Grilled cheese
with pizza rolls! Cowabunga, indeed. The ingredients include: "Real cheese pizza rolls deep fried until extra spicy and atomic hot. Rich homemade marinara. Green ooze basil pesto cream cheese. Provolone and Romano cheese." You can add pepperoni. Here's their flyer advertising the special melt:
Not being anywhere near this amazing sandwich, I decided to make a version at home. And schnikes, it was a perfect combo. My ingredients obviously aren't as fresh, so I imagine adding the likes of homemade pizza rolls or pesto would really knock it out of the park. My lazy self went with these options:
Ciabatta bread (from Panera)
Cream cheese
Buitoni brand pesto
Buitoni brand marinara
Totino's cheese pizza rolls (fully baked)
Sliced provolone
Shredded romano
Brush the bread with butter or olive oil (I put mine in a panini press rather than grilling it, and it was still incredibly messy).
Mix equal parts cream cheese and pesto. Spread on both the top and bottom slices of bread. Put one or two slices of provolone on each slice of bread, followed by approximately two-three tablespoons of shredded romano cheese on each slice. Put as many baked pizza rolls (it's best to put them in the sandwich right of the oven so they stay molten, burn the skin off your lips hot) as you can fit on one of the slices and put as much marinara sauce as you want on top of them (I put the marinara in the middle of the sandwich so the bread wouldn't get crazy soggy). Put the two halves of your ginormous sandwich together. There's no pretty way to do it, cheese is going to end up on your floor.
Grill or squish in the panini press until the bread is crispy and more importantly, the cheese is melted. Devour while it's hot. If you don't get covered in marinara sauce eating it, you're doing something wrong.
People demanded photos when I talked about my monstrosity of a sammich on Twitter, but it just isn't a photogenic meal. The photo I snapped with my iPhone didn't show it as sexy food porn, just a second rate hot mess. A hot, delicious mess.
You can call it TMNT grilled cheese (especially if you want to post about it on your geek-themed blog), or you can just call it yummy.
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