Food & Drink

This recipe was available at foodnetwork.com and was taken from an episode of Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello. I wanted to make my own garlic bread, even though the Texas toast available in the freezer aisle of my local grocer is so good. I looked online for a recipe I liked and found that for something as simple as garlic bread, there are an incredible amount of different recipes. Many suggested I use 4 cloves or 6 cloves of garlic. I chose this recipe because it says use 4 HEADS of garlic. I was sold.

4 heads garlic
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 sprigs thyme, plus 1 tablespoon finely chopped
Grey salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
1 loaf of good, crusty bread, cut into slices

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut top from each head of garlic, exposing the cloves. Place heads of garlic (cut side up), on a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil. Pour olive oil over them, and top with thyme springs. Season with salt and pepper. Wrap the foil tightly. Place in a small ovenproof pan, and bake until the cloves begin to pop out, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and cool.

To remove the cloves, open the foil and squeeze the lower part of the head of garlic. In a small bowl, mash the cloves to form a paste. (At this point the paste can be used or stored in the refrigerator or freezer.)

Add butter and chopped thyme to the bowl, stirring to combine. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Toast both sides of the bread, using a hot grill, grill pan, or broiler. Spread the roasted garlic butter paste onto the toasted bread. Serve immediately.

The only small variation I opted for with this recipe (not including my inability to find grey salt) was to actually sprinkle grated parmesan cheese over each piece of bread once the garlic butter paste had been applied. This recipe was great using the loaf of Italian bread I picked up at my grocer's bakery section. I had slices of mozzarella that were about the size of a silver dollar and maybe 1/4-1/2" thick. Those went great on the pasta, but even better on the bread especially when it was topped with my friend's homemade sauce.

You can bet I will use this recipe again.