Ricotta & Spinach Grilled Cheese

By Lucia Ferrara

We’re in the back-to-season now and so today, I’m going to show you how to make a school night dinner favorite. It’s a fancy grilled cheese sandwich that I call Ricotta & Spinach Grilled Cheese. Actually, the sandwich has four kinds of cheese, so you know it’s going to be a real crowd pleaser!

This sandwich is perfect as an afternoon snack when the kids get home from school — you know they are always starving — or paired with a bowl of soup or garden salad and it can be part of a full meal for the whole family.

Ricotta & Spinach Grilled Cheese
● ¼ cup sliced garlic cloves, sauteed
● 1 cup frozen spinach*
● ½ grated parmesan cheese
● Sliced mozzarella cheese
● Sliced provolone cheese
● Softened butter
● Sliced sourdough bread
● Red pasta sauce for dipping

*You can use fresh spinach, but fresh spinach should be sauteed with the garlic. Also, you can substitute any grated cheese you like instead of the parmesan.

Cooking as a spiritual practice

But before you dive into cooking and eating this delicious sandwich, it is important, I think, at this time of year as we send our kids off to school — grade school, high school, college, home school, virtual school, whatever school — we pray for God’s protection over them. Here is a prayer I found on the University of Dayton Campus Ministry website.

A Prayer for Educators, Parents, and Students

By Fr. Satish Joseph

All Holy, Loving, and Compassionate God,

We thank you for your loving care of all creation and your protection and guidance overall. We come to you today, with all the faith and trust we can muster in this time of the pandemic. Please come to our aid.

We bring the administrators, principals, professors, teachers, school secretaries, the support staff, and the maintenance staff of our schools and universities before you. In their vocation as educators, they continue the teaching ministry of Christ. We pray for your blessings over their lives, their work, their livelihood, and their families. Guide them with your wisdom. May they be empowered by your Spirit to see the needs of their students and to inspire those under their care.

We bring our parents, guardians, and caregivers of our students before you. They are faced with unprecedented challenges. They have to make decisions that require your wisdom, understanding and insight. When they feel overwhelmed, be present in their lives. May they never feel alone or abandoned. Strengthen them from within, so that they might be a source of strength, confidence, and hope for their children.

Most of all, we bring before you our students who will either be educated online, at home, or in person in our schools. As they pursue their education in the midst of the pandemic, enlighten their minds. May they grow in grace and wisdom. In areas where there is a lack, provide them knowledge, understanding, counsel, and fortitude. Keep them safe from all illnesses and protect them from all harm.

We ask all these things, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and through Christ our teacher. Amen.

My heart and my prayers go out to all of our youth all over the world. Have a great school year!

Never miss an article published on the Renewal Center website: Sign up to receive our newsletters.

All the articles and videos in the Cooking and Spirituality Series can be found here.

[Lucia Ferrara, the Director of Hospitality at Precious Blood Renewal Center. Share your thoughts with Lucia or ask her questions using the form below or by sending an email to info@pbrenewalcenter.org.]

We’d Like to Hear from You!

We’d like to know what you think about this article. Send us a comment using the form below. Do you have a suggestion? Is there something you want to learn more about? Send us a note.