Garlic bread is easy to make and very tasty. It can be served with pasta, or on its own as a late-night snack, or with salad for lunch. You can use toasting bread, or baguette, sour dough or almost any other kind of bread you can think of.

Makes: 2 portions/4 slices. Prep: 5 minutes. Cooking time: 5-7 minutes.
Stores: Not at all. Make and eat.

Ingredients

• 2 cloves of garlic
• A good dollop of butter
• 4 slices of bread
• Salt and pepper to taste

Tools

• Garlic crusher/pestle and mortar/chopping board and knife
• Bread knife, of the bread isn’t already sliced
• Small bowl
• Spoon or fork for mixing
• Grill

Method

1. Turn on the grill.
2. Crush the garlic (in a garlic crusher, mortar or using the broad of a knife).
3. Put it in the bowl and add the butter.
4. Mix thoroughly.
5. Season to taste.
6. Slice the bread (if you need to).
7. Toast one side in the grill.
8. Remove from grill and turn over.
9. Spread garlic butter evenly across the bread slices.
10. Return to grill and toast until golden in the middle and browned at the edges.

Variations

• Instead of slices of bread, slice a baguette almost all the way through into coins, still connected, as if you were slicing it into portions. Slather the slices with garlic butter and cook the whole thing in a hot oven until golden brown.
• Cover in cheese.
• If you don’t have butter, don’t worry. Oil works just as well.
• Dispense with preparing the garlic bread yourself and call it pan Catalan: give each person a couple of slices of toast, a clove of peeled garlic and a ripe tomato. Then show them how to rub the garlic onto the bread, until they have the intensity they desire, then smush the tomato on top and eat. Great with soup, salad, pasta… It’s so good.
• Add a small handful of finely chopped parsley to the garlic mix. This is great on pasta, nothing else needed.