Got leftover garlic? One of the all-time best uses for garlic, extra or not, is garlic bread. Think of a buttery slice beside your plate of spaghetti as some old favorite red sauce joint. That’s the good stuff.
The only problem is that too often garlic bread disappoints. There’s not enough butter, or it’s greasy. The garlic is raw and overwhelming, or sparse and tasteless. The bread is too chewy, rather than contrasting soft interior with crunchy crust.
Today we’re here to remedy all your garlicky woes with our recipe for homemade garlic bread. If you’ve found yourself collecting extra cloves from your Blue Apron box, grab six of them right now, and let’s make some garlic bread.
Read more: How to Make Garlic Confit
Garlic Bread Recipe
You’ll want to pick up a good loaf of Italian bread, preferably from a beloved local bakery. You want it to be soft inside and crusty on the outside—nothing too dense here. Grab a stick of softened salted butter, your pepper grinder, and those six cloves of garlic
Now, let’s multitask. At the same time, preheat the oven to 350°F and chop your garlic cloves very finely with the salt or press them on the microplane to make a paste.
In a small bowl, combine the garlic with the stick of butter and some black pepper and squish together to combine them. This might take a bit of elbow grease.
Cut your loaf of bread in half lengthwise, then spread the butter thickly on bottom half.
Replace the top half, and wrap the whole loaf in a sheet of foil. Place the loaf on a baking sheet, and bake for 10 minutes, until the butter is melted.
Unwrap, open the bread up, place each half butter side up, and bake for 5 more minutes, until golden around the edges.. While the bread is crisping up, grate about 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese.
Sprinkle the cheese across the surface of both loaves, then cut each half into 2-inch wide strips. Serve hot, with plenty of napkins.
