The Perfect Gourmet Grilled Cheese

I love me a good cheese pull. Let's turn leftover ingredients from the week into a masterpiece. I have some focaccia bread, a half a loaf, cherry tomatoes, I have some peppery arugula, and last but not least some scrumptious burrata. I am going to add some dates. We're going to chop the dates up with the tomatoes. We're going to chop these up and saute them in a little olive oil until they become like ooey gooey and delicious. We are making a gourmet grilled cheese. Let's go. So I want really, I want thin slices, not really huge slices. Sandwich slices. What's that? A half an inch thick? Two of those. Now you do have to have a really sharp knife. You can't slice through this with a dull knife. I'm not going to do much to the greens. I want to keep them whole. We're just going to sprinkle a little bit on top so we don't have to prep those. I want some nice sized pieces, so I'm just going to slice them twice. These are pitted dates, and I love how dates taste. They have a beautiful texture. They're super sweet. Then I'm going to gently slice the tomatoes. These are just going to add some acidity because we don't want this too sweet. Just a little bit. We're going to start with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil. Just a little bit. It smells so good right now. All the sugars from the dates are releasing. All the juices from the tomatoes. Oh my goodness. Butter time. Don't forget about these. Time to toast these up. I want to make sure both sides get some of that butter, so I switch it real quick. I'm toasting both sides, but we need both of them to get that butter. Toast this real quick. We are going to stack the sandwich from here. Burrata is a shell of fresh mozzarella cheese like that. Inside, it's stuffed with pieces of mozzarella cheese and cream. It's a dream. I'm going to load some of that skin. This is very milky, so watch out when I'm putting this on both sides. Because a grilled cheese, it has to be cheese on both sides. We're going to come in with this luscious, beautiful topping, filling the tomatoes with the dates. I don't know if you guys know this, but sweet, salty, and sour, they all go together. It's okay to try sweet items with savory items. Let me turn this down. Last but not least, because I want a little freshness, this is so rich, I am just going to put a couple, just a few. I'm not going to stack them up. Here's the key to a perfect grilled cheese. Turn it all the way down. This is hot. I'm going to put this top one there like such. That was a big flip, you guys. I am going to turn the heat down. This goes up to 10. I'm going to turn this down to a 1. I'm going to put the top over it. What that does is when you put the top over your grilled cheese, you are allowing the bread to toast within all the heat and steam that's building up in the pan because it's covered. It's going to help melt that cheese. There's heat all around and the cheese can't help but to melt. I'll let you know when it's time to flip. Let's check on it. Here goes the flip. You don't just want to toss it. You just got to hold it. It's okay to touch it. Look at that. Lay the baby in the pan. Gently cover. Then it's going to be time to slice it. Give it about two or three minutes. The sandwich is out. That's the crunch that we're going to be looking for later on. Because I'm extra indulgent, I'm going to take this big jam. I'm just going to spread a little jam on top. If you have never put jelly on your grilled cheese, you have not lived. Put a little bit on there. Only thing left to do is dig in. Look at that. Oh, I get to eat this. Wow. I love me a good cheese pull. The bread is nice and crispy and buttery. The mozzarella is warm and ooey gooey. It just gives you a hug. The tomatoes are tangy and refreshing. They're juicy. The date is just laid back, chill, and sweet. Then the jam is just the icing on top. I'm making mes amigas.