Mouthing Off

Mortadella and Cheese Panini; © Con Poulos

Imagine a world without cheese—no pizza, no mac and cheese, no cheeseburgers, no cheesecake, no grilled cheese. It would mean the disintegration of society as we know it! The end of the world! Possibly the complete implosion of the entire known universe! Well, thankfully, ExxonMobil has patented the process of “cheese fracking,” insuring that none of us will ever face a future sans cheese. And that means we can go merrily on pairing wine with our grilled cheese sandwiches. And that, my cheese-fanatic friends, is a big relief. "American cheese and white bread. Shouldn’t be scoffed at, even by foodies, and never scoffed at by seven-year-olds." »

Even meat-loving Texans love Grace Parisi's Spiced-Tofu Sandwiches. // © Lucas Allen

Food & Wine's senior recipe developer, Grace Parisi, is a Test Kitchen superstar. In this series, she shares some of her favorite recipes to make right now.

Our staff is pretty tough when it comes to recipe critiques—especially something as "fringe" as tofu. They hear "come to the kitchen to try a tofu blah blah blah…" and either come by reluctantly, or tune it out altogether. I had to tempt them back with a pork sandwich in the same message. In this dish, extra-firm tofu is marinated in a fragrant mix of coriander, fennel, black pepper, bay, paprika and garlic for 48 hours to soak up the spices' flavors. Then it's grilled and sandwiched with sweet pickles, lettuce, tomato and BBQ mayo in brioche buns. This "burger" ended up getting more kudos than the pork sitting on the adjacent platter. Texan and big meat guy Ray Isle was impressed—that's extraordinarily high praise! SEE RECIPE »

Related: More Recipes with Tofu
Vegetarian Sandwiches
Healthy Sandwiches