Ciabatta Garlic Bread

Garlic bread has become a food that I make quite often as my boyfriend really loves it. He now asks if I'll make garlic bread every time I make pasta, which is pretty frequently.

Side bar on pasta. I LOVE pasta. When deciding where to study abroad in college, a huge factor for me was food. I asked myself, "what European cultures' food would I be ok with eating everyday?" The answer was a no brainer, Italian. I am obsessed with Italy, I think in a past life I was Italian.

Anyway, back to garlic bread. On this particular occasion, I had not planned to make garlic bread when I had gone shopping for the ingredients for Spaghetti. I got creative and took inspiration from my restaurant owning family's resourcefulness and looked though my cupboards and refrigerator for ingredients that I could use to make garlic bread. I sliced the rest of a loaf of ciabatta, mixed together fresh garlic and olive oil and spread it generously over the bread. My boyfriend and I are both garlic lovers so I'm never shy using garlic in my cooking. I stayed away from using butter because I'm trying stay on the healthier side (I used ground turkey instead of beef in the spaghetti). I am a believer that you don't need large amounts of butter or fatty oils if you season food properly. That goes for salt as well-herbs and spices add a huge amount of flavor and you can reduce the salt! For cheese, I only had pecorino cheese so I grated it on my bread. Pecorino is a pretty powerful flavor, similar to parmesan and is a bit salty. Because of the salty flavor, I did not add any salt to my olive oil and garlic mix, as I would have had I used mozzarella cheese. I baked the bread in the oven at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.

I loved how this garlic bread turned out, great flavor and crunch from the baked ciabatta. I also liked that it wasn't so bread heavy like many garlic bread recipes that call for a sourdough roll. I've made this same garlic bread again since; the second time I added a little of my favorite seasoning I got in Florence. It's called arrabbiata, it has close to the same blend as a traditional italian spice blend, but with some spicy pepper flakes mixed in as well. We both love our food with a little spice so a sprinkle of the arrabbiata seasoning before baking the garlic bread really added some flavor and kick.

Homework: Have some fun trying out garlic bread creations, please share any success stories, as I'm always looking for new ways to cook favorite dishes!