I was in Florence last week. Beautiful city! And the food and wine are especially good to enjoy! One thing I did notice was that bread is served with more or less every meal course and a lot of Italians were using the bread to soak up any leftover pasta sauce or juices from their plate. Piles of bread and plenty of olive oil are probably my downfall! I just can’t help but to dig in for more.
I do try and keep my bread down to a minimum but sometimes you just need that bread on the side. I stick to bread when I am serving a soup or a simple salad in order to avoid too many carbs!
Ah, garlic bread. But this isn’t your standard baguette kind stuffed with creamy garlic butter and tastes quite artificial. Although I am never one to complain about a slice of pizza and some garlic bread as a Saturday night treat! But this bread is stuffed with fresh garlic, plenty of herbs and drizzled with olive oil.
I call this my cheat’s garlic bread because I have simply used a fresh ciabatta. I pick up a fresh loaf from a local bakery but you can also pick up a packet from the supermarket. Nothing beats home made bread but I think we have to be realistic sometimes. Making your own bread can be time consuming. This quick and easy way of making your own garlic bread will take a fraction of the time and stop you from being persuaded to just pick up a soggy, artificial garlic bread from the fridges in Tesco or Kaisers (meaning that when you do enjoy that kind of bread you will have less guilt!)
- Juice of half a lemon
- olive oil
- 1 loaf ciabatta
- fresh rosemary
- fresh thyme (you can also use oregano)
- black pepper
- 5 cloves garlic (crushed)
- Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5 / 190 degrees celsius.
- Slit the bread diagonally. Then tuck the pieces of crushed garlic into each fold.
- Stuff each fold with fresh herbs and a little drizze of olive oil.
- Drizzle more olive oil on top of the bread and a light squeeze of lemon juice.
- Garnish with more fresh herbs on top and some black pepper.
- Place in the oven for around 20 minutes and serve warm.
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