Italian Basil Tomato Melt

This is a recipe my mom came up with and I learned how to make this week. We are calling it the Italian Basil Tomato Melt

Ingredients:
tomato slices (2 per sandwich)
yellow onion slices
medium cheddar cheese
dried or fresh sweet basil
butter or margarine
Parmesan cheese
whole wheat bread slices
balsamic vinaigrette

Tools needed:
cheese knife
cutting board
butter knife (or spreading knife)
frying pan
spatula

First slice the cheese with a cheese knoife. These kinds of knives look different than most other knives. This kind of knife helps to slice a block of cheese better so the cheese is less likely to stick to your knife.

You can get these knives from different stores and at different prices. This one came with a set my dad bought for my mom.




Next slice your tomatoes and place them on a plate and sprinkle basil over them and drizzle desired amount of balsamic vinaigrette. We used a vinaigrette from Safeway from their Organic selection. If you taste it on it's own it is very strong and might burn your throat. It is best used as a seasoning or for dipping french bread in it as an appetizer.

We bought a large bundle of basil from the Farmer's Market and dried it by laying it over a cooling rack over night. Then we placed it into a bag and use all year long. It does taste better when it's fresh, but we didn't want it to mold in the refrigerator so we dried it to keep it.

Now layer your ingredients with the cheese first, we used two slices. Then add tomatoes, onions(desired amount), then another layer of cheese.

(My sister added cooked turkey bacon to her layers today and loved that.)

We place cheese on both sides so that the vegetables don't slide out of the sandwich and besides, it tastes great with more cheese.




You'll now want to close your sandwich and butter one side well and sprinkle some parmesan cheese over the butter and then spread it into the butter.
We recommend 100% parmesan, because some parmesan cheese companies add weird things to it to prevent caking. Fresh is best!


Now we place the frying pan over medium heat until hot and ready. Next place your sandwich on the pan and cook one side until golden brown and flip with a spatula. You may want to have your parent's help with the cooking part.





In the picture here you can see that our Teflon pan is not holding up to the guarantee and we learned that Teflon is not a good thing to cook your food on. So a new pan will be on our next shopping list.



Place your sandwich on a plate and cut in half. We served ours with baby carrots and celery sticks filled with cream cheese and lightly sprinkled with Chili powder. It's not spicy and is actually kinda sweet and tastes very good.

We hope you enjoy our Italian Basil Tomato Melt.