Something magical happens when you cook a sandwich: The bread becomes wonderfully crunchy, the cheese oozes, and the fillings marry in a way that makes them simply irresistible. Grilled and pressed sandwiches are warm, compact, and filled with intense and distinct hits of flavor.

From Italy to Cuba, grilled sandwiches are popular portable lunches and light dinners. But the ingredients needn't be exotic to yield delicious results, as the following recipes prove. Our version of the good old-fashioned American grilled cheese, for example, adds ham and tomato. And simplicity is key in the Southern-accented pulled-pork sandwich that combines spicy barbecue, buttery provolone cheese, and crisp-sweet bread-and-butter pickles.

Vary the bread from sweet, soft Hawaiian bread to chewy ciabatta. Experiment with different cheeses. And use our recipes as a base for your own sandwich fillings. You're limited only by your imagination.