Give Basic Grilled Cheese The Red Wine Treatment; You Won't Want It Any Other Way

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Grilled cheese sandwiches are delicious in their simplicity. Golden-brown, buttery bread and creamy fromage are timelessly tasty on their own. That said, there are endless ways to upgrade a grilled cheese. You can add vegetables, bacon, or condiments, for starters. But hear us out: Once you infuse your favorite handheld with red wine, you'll never look back.

There are a few ways to do this. Most literally, you can add wine to the cheese in a food processor to create an infused paste. Alternatively, you can cook another element of the sandwich (like buttery caramelized onions) with red wine to flavor the filling. It'll cook into a sticky reduction, which you can thicken with flour or cornstarch if you'd like. Instead, you could also opt for wine jelly — store-bought or homemade — to spread on the bread instead. Even easier? Use a wine-soaked cheese for just a whisper of wine-flavor.

No matter how you combine the two, it's a culinary collaboration that's bound to work. Wine's tannic, astringent qualities pair with the fattiness of the cheese to create a balanced texture and flavor. Vino's acidity curbs the richness of the cheese and allows you to taste its complexities. Vice versa, the luscious qualities of the cheese amplify the tasting notes and brightness of the wine. Just be sure to keep either element's intensity in mind; a bold cheese needs a wine that's just as robust.

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Adding red wine to grilled cheese is one of the most creative ways to use wine in cooking. Whether you go with cheddar, Swiss, goat cheese, or Brie, the drink can only improve the handheld. To start, we recommend this ultimate grilled cheese recipe, since it's fancy-ish without being difficult to prepare, and the cheeses (white cheddar, Gruyère, and fontina) are flavorful yet neutral enough to accommodate whatever vino you choose.

To incorporate the wine, shop for a bottle to add to the cheese or another element, like sautéed onions. Try a light or medium red with some vibrancy, like merlot, pinot noir, or cabernet sauvignon (which pairs very well with cheddar). As for the condiment route, popular store-bought options include Clif Family Red Wine Jelly with Cracked Pepper and Prunotto Mariangela Dolcetto Wine Jelly, but you could always make your own. And in the wine-washed cheese department, Drunken Goat, Sartori Merlot BellaVitano, and BelGioioso Artigiano Vino Rosso fit the bill.

Before you dig in, know that red wine grilled cheese likely won't get you tipsy. Alcohol's boiling point is low enough that most of it evaporates when cooked (albeit to varying degrees, depending on time and method). Something like wine-simmered shallots or jelly will retain minimal alcohol. However, if you simply blend the cheese and wine together to make a spread, it'll retain more, since the only "cooking" will be grilling the sandwich.