With its fluffy interior and crisp exterior, focaccia is best served the day it is made. After 24 hours, what was once a soft and airy bread has turned into something dry and dense. The crispy bubbles and crisp edges have lost all their signature snap and characteristic crunch. It's hard to imagine that the focaccia you couldn't stop snacking on yesterday is the same old bread that's sitting on your counter today.
During the months and months that the test kitchen was difficult to develop Big and bubbly focaccia (Our 2025 recipe of the year!), I ate more than my fair share of focaccia – and found myself with a lot of leftovers. Sandwiches were a natural solution, but I was still faced with the downside of dry day(s) old focaccia: the crust was hard and tough, making it difficult to bite, and the interior crumb was dried out. But thankfully, I found a solution that makes any focaccia sandwich – no matter how old the bread – a real winner: I started turning my leftover focaccia Inside out.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; Food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Making a grilled cheese (or any other type of grilled sandwich) with this technique breathes new life into your old bread. Making a grilled cheese (or any other type of grilled sandwich) with this technique breathes new life into your old bread. The hard exterior of the bread is softened by the sandwich fillings, and the once-dense interior crumb, once lavished with butter (or mayo) and exposed to heat, turns into a crispy shell. And you won't tear the roof of your mouth off at an extra tasty part of the crispy exterior, since that part is tucked inside.
Assembly for the ultimate grilled cheese focaccia couldn't be easier. Start by using a serrated knife to slice leftover focaccia into your desired sandwich size. Then slice the piece horizontally to make a top and bottom half. Turn the focaccia inside out so the interior crumb faces outward – these will become the top and bottom surfaces of your grilled cheese in the pan. Take the top half of the focaccia and spread a thin layer of mayonnaise or softened butter on the crumb side (the side that was originally the inside of the focaccia), and place it mayo-side. Down In a preheated non-stick pan over medium heat. Add your cheese to the top surface of the focaccia. (I've found that sprinkling shredded cheese evenly over the focaccia in the pan, and topping with sliced cheese results in the best cheese spread.) Now is the time to add any non-cheese components, too – sliced tomato, avocado, spinach , etc. – whatever your heart desires!
For the second half of the focaccia, spread a thin layer of mayonnaise or softened butter on the crumb side and place it mayo-side. Up On top of the cheese-covered half. Press down on the sandwich with a spatula and cook until the bottom layer of bread is golden brown. Carefully turn the sandwich, pressing down again, and cover the pan with a lid. Continue to cook until the second side is golden, and the cheese has thoroughly melted. Remove from the pan, let cool a little, and slice to serve.
Be sure to keep the heat medium low to medium and keep the pan covered; Cooking the sandwich low guarantees that everything will be melted over. Because the sandwich can get quite high when you build it, do not be afraid to firmly compress the sandwich with a spatula while cooking so you will be left with a sandwich that you can actually fit in your mouth.
One final tip: If you are making a grilled cheese from a corner piece of focaccia, turn the pieces of horizontally sliced focaccia so that the same corners are on opposite sides. Sometimes the corners of the 9″ square baked focaccia will be a little less tall/more sloped, so I found it best during grilled cheese testing to rotate so a sloped-angle is paired with a higher-rise interior angle.
I used to think day-old focaccia was just a shadow of its former self, but turning it inside out for a grilled sandwich is a simple trick that turns lackluster leftovers into delicious creations that celebrate every last bite of your bread. First, you will need some focaccia – watch This video To learn all the best tips!
Cover photo by Patrick Marineello; Food styling by Yekaterina Buistova.