Celebrating National Grilled Cheese Month with Provoleta
Last night I got an email from Justin saying something to the effect of “Hey bro it’s national grilled cheese month, lets do a post on that”. Well I knew right away what I would write about for this one. In fact it’s something that I do everyday in the restaurant, and no, there isn’t any steak in it. It’s not grilled cheese in the sense of some melted butter between two toasted pieces of bread-type sandwich. It is, in essence, a deconstructed grilled sandwich, with much nicer cheese and bread as well as a few other subtle flavors. Now that you’re curious I will tell you the name of the grilled cheese that I’m beginning to wax poetic about – Provoleta. Unless you have an Argentine background, or a well traveled palate, you may not know what this is.
Provoleta is a favorite appetizer or first course in many Argentinean asados or barbeques, and it literally is grilled cheese…provolone to be specific. The best provolone is aged in the form of a roped cylinder which is hung to dry for certain lengths of time. As it dries the flavor intensifies and becomes a bit sharper. The provolone we use at Caminito is dried almost to the hardness of a young Parmesan. We use this type of provolone because it’s easier to grill. The provolone is sliced into ½” thick discs, coated lightly with vegetable oil, and then over a hot and clean fire is grilled for anywhere from 15 seconds to a full minute to achieve a crisp grill marked surface. The density and hardness of the cheese allow it to be grilled without melting through the grates, and also play a role in the ultimate goal of achieving melted cheese with a crispy surface.
In order to achieve the melted half of the equation, the grill marked cheese is simply placed in a shallow casserole dish, grilled side up, and baked in a 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes (again depending on the hardness of the cheese) until thoroughly melted, but not dry. The provoleta is then sprinkled lightly with oregano, diced tomato and then drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. It’s served while still meltingly soft with ample amounts of crusty dinner rolls (the good kind of crusty of course). The overall flavor is naturally that of a pungent provolone but it is mellowed comparatively by the intensity of the char from the grill marks and smoothed by the addition of the olive oil. The tomatoes and oregano play what I call a “friendship role” in the overall flavor as they tend to compliment any Italian cheese nicely.
The way I like to eat my provoleta is to break a dinner roll in half, place inside a nicely charred and seasoned piece of melty provolone and then use the top half of the roll to mop up a little oil and cheese juice from the dish thus completing my personal favorite grilled cheese sandwich! Now that I told you what my favorite grilled cheese is, what’s yours? How are you going to celebrate National Grilled Cheese month?
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