When I was growing up cheese on toast was a staple. However when I moved overseas in the early 1990s I stopped eating it.
Why? Well two reasons really:
- Sliced bread is common in the UK and Ireland. It isn’t in France, Italy or Spain
- Most cookers in France, Italy and Spain don’t have grills like Irish cookers do
Of course I currently live in Ireland, so I’ve no excuse. Pretty much every single cooker sold in this country comes with a grill.
So every now and again I will make cheese on toast.
However cheese on toast by itself is a little pedestrian.
To make it a little bit more interesting I like to slice up an onion and a tomato so that you get cheese and onion with tomatoes.
Preparation is simple – simply grill the bread on one side. When it’s done add your cheese, onion and tomato.
Grill until the cheese has melted. The tomatoes and onion won’t be fully cooked, but if you’ve cut the onion thinly enough it won’t matter.
You can serve it “as is” or add a bit of chutney.
Cheese on Toast With Onion & Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 1 - 2 slices Sliced bread suitable for toasting
- 50 g Cheese any will do, but cheddar is probably best
- 1 - 2 Tomatoes one or two depending on how many slices of bread you're using
- 1/2 Onion
Instructions
-
Toast the bread on one side under your grill
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While the bread is toasting, peel and slice the onion. Slice the tomato.
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Once the bread is toasted on one side remove from the grill turn it over and add the cheese, onion and tomato slices
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Grill until the cheese has melted
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Serve hot with some chutney
Recipe Notes
You can make this "low carb" by using a lower carb bread
forbairt
November 10, 2014 at 07:47Can’t say I’ve come across the lack of Grills in France / Spain but then I’ve not lived in that many places and we’ve had to buy our own in France and the second place came with one.
You can however find sliced pan everywhere in Spain and France at least in my experience. I may have bought a loaf of it once to use for making breakcrumbs. I like the idea of a toasted cheese sandwich but having to buy a loaf of sliced pan to make it = it’s not going to happen.
In your recipe I’d probably recommend using a spring onion for a more subtle taste or a shallot / red onion as it’ll have a milder kick and possibly meant you’re still able to talk to people afterwards without onioning them out of it 😀
Michele Neylon
November 10, 2014 at 15:26James
Maybe you can find sliced pan now – when I lived there the “sliced bread” was horribly thin muck which was also tiny. In Italy they use it for making aperitif type things, but not for actual sandwiches.
Spring onion would obviously work better, but “onion” is more common
Thanks for your comment
Michele