Ina Garten's 3-Ingredient Spread For Gourmet Grilled Cheese

We've come up with 14 additions to elevate your grilled cheese, ranging from umami-rich ingredients like tomatoes, mushrooms, and pulled pork to a drizzle of sweet honey. Beloved TV personality and gourmet chef extraordinaire Ina Garten supplements our list with her own three-ingredient spread that'll improve both the taste and texture of your next grilled cheese.

On an episode of the Food Network show "The Barefoot Contessa," Garten makes a luxurious, and well-balanced spread out of mayo, Dijon mustard, and parmesan. This simple spread made with staple condiments and garnishes you probably have in your fridge offers a rich and creamy consistency that will blend with cheese to make for a decadently oozing cheese pull. The salty, nutty parmesan and tangy, spicy mustard are the sophisticated flavor upgrades that will bring your grilled cheese to gourmet heights.

In her recipe, Garten mixes the ingredients in a bowl, slathering a heaping portion onto both slices of bread before adding strips of bacon and shredded white cheddar cheese to the bottom slice, topping it with the other slice and grilling the sandwich in a panini press. However, this spread will pair with numerous other cheeses and additional sandwich fillers in a panini press or stovetop skillet.

A tangy, spicy, creamy spread will work well with sharp cheeses like the white cheddar Ina Garten uses in her recipe, but most types of melty, shreddable cheese you have in mind for your grilled cheese sandwich will likewise benefit from it. A smoky gouda, rich gruyere, mild mozzarella, or a combination of varieties will all taste delicious with Garten's gourmet spread. Since she uses savory bacon in her recipe, you can also layer other similarly umami-rich ingredients like mushrooms and tomatoes onto your grilled cheese. Caramelized onions and honey would balance the spicy and tangy flavors in the spread.

Garten uses the spread on both slices of bread, which will distribute the flavor into the crumb and the shredded cheese as you grill the sandwich. But you can use this mayonnaise-based spread to help create the gooiest melted center by either blending it with shredded cheese or layering a slather between slices of cheese. For that matter, you can spread a thin layer of the mixture on the outside of your bread instead of butter. We've already proven that mayonnaise can be superior to butter when it comes to evenly browned and toasted grilled cheese sandwiches. So, mayonnaise spiked with mustard and parmesan would provide flavor and browning.