Whenever I entertain healthy eaters I like to keep things on the lighter side. You don’t want guilty-feeling diners – you want happy diners. You may be wondering why I’m starting a post of cheesy garlic bread with my healthy eating sentiments.
I like to keep the healthy people happy but if you’re getting together it’s likely for special occasion (even if that special occasion is that you got babysitters). There has to be something decadent to balance the health. You may reserve the word decadent for chocolate, but not me. I would forgo dessert to eat giant chunks of cheesy garlic bread. I was recently thinking how good this would be as an appetizer; you could slice it thinly and serve it with a bowl of hot marinara sauce. You’d drive everyone crazy with how good your house smelled when they walked in.
Garlic bread is generally a throw-together type recipe that you can make to suite your tastes, but, alas, as long as they’re selling frozen garlic bread there are people somewhere who don’t know how easy it is to make yourself. As I “threw together” this bread I jotted down the amounts on a slip of paper and here it is. Feel free to swap the butter/oil for larger portions of the other or use a different cheese. Seriously, though, don’t forget about cheesy garlic bread. Perfect with just about any kind of soup, but especially tasty with these “Italian-style” soups: Holiday soup, Sausage, Bean and Spinach Soup, Winter Minestrone, and Pasta e Fagioli.
Cheesy Garlic Bread
Serves 8-10
4 (10 inch) planks of baguette-style bread
6 cloves garlic, minced
6 tbsp. butter, softened
1/4 c. olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 1/2 c. shredded mozzarella
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix all topping ingredients together and spread evenly on bread. Set bread on foil covered baking sheet.
3. Bake for 12 minutes and switch oven to broil. Put bread on top shelf and “babysit” the bread, leaving the oven door open, until golden brown with bubbling cheese.
4. Cool enough to handle, slice and serve.
