Another winner from the delicious blog of Kay, this bread (or at least the batch that happened in my kitchen) is Very Ugly. I considered naming it “Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover Garlic Bread,” “Gross-looking Greeny Garlic Bread,” and “Swamp Monster Garlic Bread.” Ultimately I didn’t have the guts to go with any of those choices, but be assured that this bread ain’t gonna win no beauty contest.

But if you close your eyes and just bite into it, you will love it. It’s full of herbs, garlic, butter, and melty Parmesan all over the top. Plus, it’s great reheated the second day. And the third day, as I am your witness.

Ingredients

(Serves 6)

1 loaf of Ciabatta
2 oz butter
2 TBS olive oil
Handful fresh basil leaves
Parsley (1/3 the amount of basil)
2 garlic cloves
1 green onion
Salt and pepper
1-2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese

The short version is: combine all the ingredients except the bread in a food processor, and process until smooth. The long version is: put the basil in the food processor (or blender, in this case) . . .

. . . add in the parsley (I used a little too much–so use about 1/3 of the amount of basil you put in) . . .

. . . smash the garlic, toss the skins, and throw that in too . . .

Add the green onion and butter . . .

. . . a generous stream of olive oil . . .

. . . and give it all a nice whizz. To accomplish this, I had to do battle with my blender for about 10 minutes, all because I forgot to get the food processor that aunt Jacquie promised me when we were at her house for AJ6BP.

Thankfully we were just at her house again last Friday to see my wonderful cousin Will and his lovely wife Kristen (not to mention their 3 killer-cute kiddos), so I have a food processor update post to write–it will be Coming Soon To Blogs Near You!

Don’t forget to season the greeny goop with salt and pepper! I almost did.

I then re-blended, and tasted it to make sure it was to my liking.

Cut open the loaf of bread and spread both halves with the basil butter.

Put the halves together and wrap the whole thing in aluminum foil. Bake it for 10 minutes at 400 F. Remove the bread, separate the halves and load them up with Parmesan cheese.

Note: the bread in this picture is most certainly NOT loaded up with Parmesan cheese. It is merely sprinkled. Make sure you pile on at least three times the amount of cheese that is pictured. It’s for your own good.

Return the halves, face up, to the oven. Either crank up the heat to 500, or put them under the broiler. Cook until the cheese is melted, bubbly, and starting to get brown. Serve!

Here you can see the bread with the mere sprinkling of Parmesan . . .

Pretty good.

Though not even its own mother could love that dark green swamp look.

However, with the added cheese, the bread goes from ‘pretty good’ to ‘really good.’

It’s amazing what a little Parmesan can accomplish.

I know that you know that I know that not a single picture actually looks that delicious–but believe me. It’s so good. If you have a garden overflowing with basil, this is a great way to use a good solid handful of it.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Basil Butter Garlic Bread