This romesco bacon grilled cheese sandwich is a delicious twist on the grilled cheese theme. It combines piquant romesco sauce with bacon, smoked cheddar and arugula to create a feast of flavors that makes a perfect lunch.

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So you may or may not be aware that April is Grilled Cheese Month, and today is the cheese of the cheese: Grilled Cheese Sandwich day.

Being a Brit, I wasn't brought up with grilled cheese being such a staple as it in in the US. Sure, my parents had a sandwich toaster and we would have toasted cheese sandwiches now and again. However, I think it was more of a hangover from a 70s trend than a true staple. It certainly wouldn't appear in kids menus virtually everywhere you go as I have found here.

Either way, lets not knock a good thing. Grilled cheese can be truly delicious and has infinite possibilities (see my eggplant spinach grilled cheese and 'jammin' Jamaican chicken grilled cheese for some creative ideas).

Bacon grilled cheese is one common variation, but I wanted to add my own twist on it. Since I had some romesco sauce in the fridge, it sparked an idea, and if I say so myself, a really good one.

Some tasty romesco sauce spread on both sides of the bread, some crisp bacon, arugula/rocket and smoked cheddar in between make for a delicious combination that I for one could eat over and over again. The romesco has a slight piquancy to it that works really well with the peppery arugula and, well, you can't go wrong with bacon and cheese, can you?

I debated using manchego and Spanish iberico ham to make it a little more Spanish in feel, but manchego tends to more sweat rather than melt in my experience. Plus, the flavors of a smoked cheddar also complement the romesco really well.

As for bacon as opposed to ham, well I felt that the crunch and smokiness of the bacon would work better here. You can of course play around and I still think manchego and iberico would be good, I just think this probably works better.

How to make this romesco bacon grilled cheese

This is an easy sandwich to make with just a few steps:

Cook the bacon - use your preferred method eg under broiler or in the oven.
Brush the outside of the bread with oil.
Assemble the sandwich and toast/grill.

Then bite in and enjoy! I don't have a proper panini press, but I find toasting on a griddle pan gives the same nice grill markings. True, it doesn't melt the cheese quite as much but it doesn't stop it being delicious.

You can also just use a skillet/frying pan or if it's nice enough when you have it, even put it on the grill/barbecue. If you cover it with a pan or something similar it will help the cheese melt more than I have here, but flavor-wise, everything will come through either way.

However you warm it to toast the outside and gently warm the interior, the end result is worth the little bit of effort.

Need more sandwich ideas?

Sandwiches can make a great, easy lunch or hearty snack and you can make them with a whole range of ingredients, too. I find it can be great to have a few ideas in mind so you have ingredients ready to make a slightly creative bite when hunger calls, such as a Spanish chorizo sandwich, caprese focaccia sandwich or Santa Fe turkey sandwich.

The flavors in this romesco bacon grilled cheese might be less typical, but they go so well together and it is a fantastically hearty lunch. With bright flavors and

Get more inspiration in the lunch recipes archives.

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5 from 2 votes