The Best Way To Make Mess-Free Grilled Cheese And Tomato Sandwiches

We all know that grilled cheese and tomato soup are an iconic pairing, but there's more than one way to combine these flavors together. If you're looking to branch out into something new while still retaining what's good about the old, adding tomato slices to your grilled cheese sandwich is an excellent option. The only trouble is, they tend to get messy. To find out how to properly prepare grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, we spoke to culinary content creator Danny Huynh.

The trick, according to Huynh, is to broil the sandwich. "Broiling from the top can lead to less mess by not having to use as much butter to make the bread crispy," he said. "It can also help reduce the mess by not having to flip it as frequently." Not needing to flip the sandwich while cooking it in the pan helps keep the whole thing together, to be sure, but one of the problems with making a tomato grilled cheese is that it can get soggy due to the high water content of the tomato slices. Salting the tomatoes first helps, but Huynh's preferred prep method also addresses this.

"I'd begin by spreading butter on the outside of the bread before adding the cheese," he explained. "Next, I'd add thinly sliced tomatoes that have been patted dry to remove excess moisture. I'd cover the tomatoes with more cheese to prevent the bread from becoming soggy and then top it with the second slice of bread." Patting the tomatoes dry with a paper towel gives you a good shot at a crispy sandwich, while the second cheese layer acts as a barrier.

Tomatoes can make almost any sandwich taste better. Their savory, tangy flavor provides a nice burst of fresh acidity, which is hard to imitate with other ingredients. Even still, all that freshness comes at the cost of tomatoes being extremely wet ingredients, which makes them tricky to cook with. If you stick a piece of bread under the faucet or dip it in a brothy soup, you'll quickly notice it turns soggy and falls apart. Tomatoes are doing the same thing when they drip their juices all over the place.

If you're making a tomato grilled cheese and following the steps above but still having trouble getting the thing to hold together, there are some small tweaks you can make. One thing to take note of is the type of bread you're using, since some are sturdier than others. If you're trying to make this type of sandwich with the regular loaves of bread from the store, odds are you're going to have a problem. These varieties are affordable, but they're also quite soft, so they tend to wither at the first sign of trouble. Sourdough is the best type of bread for grilled cheese sandwiches because of how strong its structure is, but rye bread is another good option.

Another way to innovate on the tomato grilled cheese sandwich's flavor profile without having to finagle the tomatoes into cooperating is to swap them out for something less troublesome. You can give grilled cheese sandwiches a cheap upgrade by adding pasta sauce or a layer of tomato paste, for example.