The Best Garlic Bread
Prep
10m
Cook
15m
Total
25m
Bigly says
Sit down for this one. Garlic bread. The BEST garlic bread, and I want you to take a moment to think about how many garlic breads are happening RIGHT NOW, this very second, in sad restaurants and sad freezer aisles all across this country — millions of them, an absolute parade of mediocrity — and how almost every single one is wrong. Wrong. A national tragedy. The garlic bread situation in America is a quiet CRISIS and nobody is talking about it. Nobody but me.
An old Italian woman cornered me once and made me promise to do garlic bread the right way. Tiny woman. Iron grip. She told me — and she was right, she's always right — that garlic bread is not technically Italian. The Italians make BRUSCHETTA. They rub a clove of raw garlic across grilled bread, they drizzle olive oil, they eat it standing up at the counter. Garlic bread, the buttery beautiful soft-with-a-crust thing we all love, is Italian-AMERICAN. It happened here. Other countries have TRIED to make it. France stuck cheese in a baguette and called it a day. England put raw garlic onto a slice of white bread with NO BUTTER and called it innovation. A disgrace. A crime against the loaf.
And the other so-called recipe sites — most of them — tell you to use jarred minced garlic. STOP. The jarred minced garlic is what happens when garlic gives up on itself and on you. You use FRESH garlic. You crush it with the side of a knife, you smell that smell — the smell that means a meal is about to be SERIOUS — and you let it sit in soft butter and bloom. That is the difference between a garlic bread that gets eaten out of politeness and a garlic bread that grown adults fight over the last piece of. We're making the fighting kind. Trust me.
Ingredients
- 1 large (about 1 lb)Italian loaf or ciabatta(crusty on the outside, soft inside, none of the squishy supermarket stuff)
- 1/2 cup (8 tbsp)unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tbspextra-virgin olive oil
- 8garlic cloves, finely minced(fresh, not the jar, never the jar)
- 3 tbsp, dividedfresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 1/3 cupParmigiano-Reggiano, finely grated
- 1/2 tspkosher salt
- 1/4 tspfreshly cracked black pepper
- 1/4 tspcrushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Steps
- 1
Heat oven to 400°F. Position a rack in the middle.
- 2
Slice the loaf in half lengthwise to make two long flat halves. Place cut-side up on a parchment-lined sheet pan.
- 3
In a medium bowl, combine the softened butter, olive oil, minced garlic, 2 tbsp of the parsley, the Parmigiano-Reggiano, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes if using. Mash and stir with a fork until you have a smooth spreadable paste.
- 4
Spread the garlic butter generously and evenly over both cut sides of the bread, all the way to the edges. Don't be shy — use all of it.
- 5
Bake 10-12 minutes, until the butter is bubbling and the edges of the bread are crisp and golden.
- 6
Switch the oven to broil. Move the pan to the upper rack and broil 1-2 minutes, watching the entire time, until the surface is deeply golden brown and crackly. It goes from perfect to burnt in seconds — do not walk away.
- 7
Remove from the oven. Sprinkle the remaining 1 tbsp of fresh parsley over the hot bread.
- 8
Slice crosswise into 2-inch pieces with a serrated knife. Serve immediately while the butter is still molten.
One more thing
You put this on the table next to a bowl of pasta and people reach for the bread FIRST. Every time. The pasta has to sit there and wait its turn. That's the power of this garlic bread — it rearranges the entire social order of an Italian dinner. So you make a double batch. You ALWAYS make a double batch. One disappears at the table, one disappears in the kitchen at midnight when somebody — usually you — wanders out for 'just one more piece' and discovers the piece was a lie, the piece was six pieces, and now the loaf is gone. It happens. It will happen to you. And there you have it.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
Ask Bigly about The Best Garlic Bread.
Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
★ MORE LIKE THIS ★
KEEP COOKING.
Bigly Affogato
Authentic Italian affogato: hot espresso poured over cold vanilla gelato. Two ingredients, ninety seconds, and a dessert nobody can mess up.
Bigly Antipasto Platter
A generous Italian antipasto platter with cured meats, three cheeses, marinated vegetables, olives, and crostini. Twenty minutes of assembly, zero cooking required.
Huge Bolognese
Slow-simmered Italian bolognese with beef, pork, and pancetta, finished with milk and white wine. Toss with fresh tagliatelle for the real thing.
The Best Bruschetta
Classic Italian bruschetta with ripe tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, and good olive oil on toasted rustic bread. Ten minutes to summer in a bite.