How About A Grilled Gruyere, Tart Cherry and Fresh Sage Panini

I absolutely LOVE Gruyere cheese.

If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a unique type of nutty-tasting, hard cheese named after the town of Gruyeres in Switzerland. (It’s a cow’s milk cheese that is generally cured for at least six months.) Gruyere is delicious in many dishes since it melts beautifully.

It’s ONLY made in Switzerland.

And it’s also REALLY expensive.

If you know me you know I am VERY frugal when it comes to material things like clothes and home furnishings. I proudly shop at thrift stores for most of my purchases. But I do have two vices for new items. I love high thread count sheets…and GOOD CHEESE!  So even though I will gladly buy a blouse or a skillet for a dollar at a thrift store…I will happily pay almost $90 for a  six or seven pound block of Gruyere cheese!

I purchase my “pricey vice” at a nearby Amish grocery store where I ask those Amish folks to order it for me. And $90 is actually a bargain compared to what I might pay for that cheese in a “regular” store.

I’m always looking for new ways to use Gruyere cheese and this one turned out to be delicious. It’s a Grilled Gruyere Tart Cherry and Fresh Sage Panini!

If you’re a follower of my blog you know I now have a freezer full of tart cherries, thanks to our trip to Indy last week. So yesterday I decided to create a new sandwich for lunch.

I sliced some generous slices of that yummy cheese and I put them on a thick slice of Pane Turano Italian Bread from Aldi grocery store. (It’s important to use a rustic, thick sliced bread when making a panini. It helps to keep the sandwich together and keeps the fillings inside when pressing.) Also, make sure to butter the OUTSIDE of those bread slices since that will allow the bread to become brown and crispy.

Next, I stepped outside to my herb garden and picked some fresh sage leaves to layer on top of the cheese.

Then I added a layer of those beautiful tart cherries.

I placed the sandwich in my panini press with the buttered sides of the bread on the outside. (You could also make this sandwich in a nonstick skillet if you don’t have a panini press. Just press the sandwich down with a spatula as it cooks.)

The panini press helps to compress the sandwich, and it cooks on both sides at once.

Like I said before, gruyere cheese melts beautifully!

And how’s this for a Rainbow On A Plate?

When Peepaw came home for lunch I made a panini for him. But I deleted the sage and I added some pre-cooked bacon to HIS sandwich.

He did not complain. At all.

Yes..those Indy cherries will find their way into new and different recipes. And I’ll be substituting cherries into some of my favorite recipes that call for other types of fruit. 

And about that big block of Gruyere cheese?

It’s worth every penny to me.