ROASTED GARLIC BREAD

What is there to even say? Everyone loves garlic bread; my anti-garlic mom loves it, vampires probably love it too. However, I have found that sometimes that raw garlic flavor lingers, or it gets burnt, or it's covered in layers of cheese and doesn't really taste like anything other than fat and carbs. If I'm going to bother eating something patently bad for me (I'm looking at you, fried chicken!) it better be worth it. It better be flavorful, addictive, and wonderful. To start with, I roasted the garlic ahead of time. It becomes sweeter, richer, nuttier, and just better all around. It does lose some of that heat raw garlic packs, but I add a healthy pinch of chili flake to get that spicy kick, a little lemon zest for brightness, and rosemary for an earthy, herbaceous note. It hits all of the spots you want garlic bread to hit, and then some. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 heads garlic, peeled

1 large ciabatta loaf (or a baguette)

3 oz butter

1 teaspoon rosemary, chopped

1 large pinch red chili flake

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Salt and Pepper to taste

Olive oil

Heat your oven to 425, place the peeled garlic cloves in a sheet of aluminum foil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil, and pop in the oven for about 45 minutes, or whenever the cloves get soft and golden brown. Turn the oven down to 350. Pop the cloves in a food processor with some olive oil, or using a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic into a paste. Put the garlic paste, butter, rosemary, lemon zest, and chili in a small sauce pan, and put over a medium flame until the butter is melted and everything is fragrant. Slice the ciabatta in half, length wise, and pour the garlic mixture evening over each side. Use a spoon to spread everything around, so all of the knooks and crannies are covered. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and pop in the oven for 10 minutes until everything has soaked in and is bubbling a bit. Turn on the broiler to high for a few minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown and crisped at the edges. If you get distracted and over torch the whole thing (like I did...twice) just use a knife to scrape off the burnt bits, and tip the loaves to dump them out. To serve, slice the loaves in half lengthwise and then in 1 inch slices horizontally. Enjoy!