Who doesn’t love garlic bread? My family has been making this recipe for decades, and while I don’t know exactly which generation began this tradition, it has definitely made its way into many of our Italian dinners as a delicious staple. This recipe goes great with just about anything, but oftentimes it will accompany dishes containing tomato sauce, pasta, chicken parm, etc. as a side.
For this recipe, the key is the mortar and pestle. My family has always made a big deal out of using a wooden mortar and pestle for crushing the garlic. However, you could definitely get away with mortar and pestles that are made of other materials, but be sure to avoid those with porous stone like what would be used for guacamole (molcajete) because they’re really not meant for this.
Ingredients
To make the meatballs you will need the following ingredients:
- Fresh Italian or French Bread
- 3-4 Whole Garlic Cloves
- Olive Oil
- Salt
- Butter
Kitchen Tools
And also the following kitchen tools:
- Mortar and Pestle (wood or non-porous stone)
- Large Baking Sheet
- Cutting Board
- Chef’s knife for chopping garlic
Instructions
Step 1
Preheat the oven and prepare the garlic.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200° – 205°C).
Next, grab the garlic cloves. You can use 3 or 4 garlic cloves depending on the size of your bread and your personal tastes. For the bread used in our example, we use 3 normal sized cloves. Peel the cloves, then cut off and dispose of the hard ends of each clove.
Step 2
Make the garlic pulp.
Add the garlic cloves to the mortar (the bowl) as well as 3 large pinches of salt. The amount of salt should be somewhat proportional to the amount of garlic used. Next, use the pestle (the club) to mash the garlic into the salt to create a garlic pulp consistency.
Step 3
Add some olive oil.
Once the pulp is made, add about 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to the mortar, and mix it up with a spoon. Let this sit for a few minutes to allow the garlic and salt to infuse with the oil.
Step 4
Prepare the bread.
While the garlic mixture is infusing, it is time to slice up the bread. In our example, we are using French bread. Start by slicing it in half lengthwise, then cut it into smaller, individual pieces. Place all the pieces on the baking sheet or cooking tray.
Next, spoon the oil mixture onto every piece of cut bread. Make sure to get that garlic pulp on there as well. Spread the oil evenly across each piece. If you run out of oil, feel free to add more to the mortar.
Step 5
Add a little butter (optional).
Optionally (but recommended for flavor and texture) add a small bit of butter to each cut piece of bread on top of the oil/garlic pulp.
Step 6
Bake!
Put the prepared bread into the oven for about 6 minutes and 30 seconds. The ideal final product when removing the garlic bread from the oven will have a light golden brown top, no burning, and the inside of the bread is soft while the outside has a nice crisp bite to it.