Pear, Gouda, Spam Grill-wiches

Grilled Pear Gouda and Spam

More grilled sandwich goodness! This time we had a basket of pears that were deliciously ripe. We’d eaten them sliced as dessert for several meals and with my recent Spam addiction I thought they’d make a good sandwich pairing. Add slices of gouda cheese and we might have a stunning sandwich to go along with the soup I’d made for a casual supper.

I put my flat griddle pan on the stove on medium to preheat, then began assembling the ingredients for my sandwiches.

Ripe pears

I used my favorite English muffin bread, one of the products my P.S. handles. It gets nice and crispy with all those English muffin-type holes in the bread.

I sliced two pears in half, cut out the centers and the long strings, then sliced them up. I set them aside.

Sliced Spam

The Spam came out of the can in its pink lump and I sliced it up. Two pieces were going to fit perfectly on my smaller slices of bread.

Sliced gouda

The gouda was in block form as well, so I sliced it up, finding that 4 pieces were good for covering each slice of bread.

Layer the cheese then the Spam on the slices

I layered the bread with first cheese, wanting that near the bread so it melted as it grilled. Then I layered on the Spam, and finally slices of pear.

Layer on the pear slices

The second slice of bread went on top, and then I buttered them. I made 3 sandwiches, assuming my P.S. would want two due to their small size.

Butter the top slices of the sandwiches

I carefully flipped the sandwiches, butter side down, onto my preheated griddle. I left the heat set on medium and watched until the bottoms were brown and crisped. A quick note: you can grill them however dark you’d like. These pictures show the sandwiches darker than they actually were.

Place on flat griddle pan or large skillet buttered side down, then butter the top

I used a spatula and flipped the sandwiches and let them toast and brown on the second side. I nudged them back into shape; the pears wanted to escape but I made them stay inside the sandwiches.

Turn and brown on second side

When done, I cute the sandwiches cross-wise and served them with the soup and extra pieces of pear I’d had left over. The pears were so large that even making 3 sandwiches I had a few slices left over. No problem, they were good all by themselves.

Pear, Gouda and Spam Grill-wiches

I adored these flavors together. My P.S. did as well, grunting his appreciation as he devoured 2 sandwiches with his soup. Pears, gouda and Spam are a good match. The sweetness of the pears balanced out the saltiness of the Spam. And gouda is just good on anything, don’t you think? Definitely a sandwich combo worth repeating!

The sandwiches would have been a good Panini as well. I will mention as I have previously that I resist getting a Panini press because I have so many appliances that have limited uses that my kitchen storage is now at a premium. I can see the benefit of having one, but I can use my flat griddle pan for so many more uses it just works better for me.