Table for One - Grilled Homemade Pimento Cheese

Few of us want to make a complicated lasagna for solo dining -- by day six, you'll never want to see lasagna again! In this series, AOL Food staffer Sarah LeTrent taste-tests simple recipes suitable for a "table for one."

Oh, beloved pimento cheese; the Southeast's answer to cheese dip and queso.

The bright-orange spread is nothing more than extra-sharp cheddar, mayonnaise, diced pimiento peppers and cracked black pepper. Homemade pimento cheese is a snap to make and leftovers are a cracker's best friend. You could spruce up the spread with serrano peppers, garlic, cayenne, different types of cheese or even bacon. But to most, nothing is better than the classic four-ingredient mix between two pieces of bread.

The pimiento is a small cherry pepper which loses the "i" in cheese-spread form to become plain ol' "pimento." Known for its sweetness, you'll probably recognize it in the jarred and diced forms. As a relative of the red bell pepper, many cooks -- including Matt and Ted Lee -- even admit to substituting the latter for pimientos.

In "The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook", they write, "Conventional pimento cheese recipes call for canned pimentos, but we broil a fresh red bell pepper, skin it and cut it into small dice before mixing it with cheese. Sure it makes some eyes roll in Charleston, but we think this is a simple route to a more vibrant and sophisticated (less chemical-tasting) pepper flavor."

Grilled Pimento Cheese Sandwich

2 1/2 cups sharp-cheddar cheese, grated
4-ounce jar pimentos, drained
1 cup mayonnaise
Cracked black pepper, to taste
2 slices white, wheat or rye bread
1 tablespoon butter

Combine the pimentos and black pepper in a bowl with the grated cheese. Then stir in the mayonnaise, mashing the mixture with a fork until relatively smooth. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours to allow the flavors to meld.

Preheat a pan over medium heat. Spread a generous layer of the cheese mixture between two slices of bread.

Melt a tablespoon of butter in the pan and cook one side of the sandwich until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes, pressing down with a metal spatula to help it sear. Flip and cook the other side until golden brown and the cheese starts to melt, about 3 minutes more.