I am a sucker for specialty grocery stores. I love international markets. I love to walk across the street to the Japanese grocery store and buy Melona popsicles. I love to stop by the Indian market and pick up a can of Lychee juice. I love going next door to my work to walk through the aisles of The Fresh Market or Whole Foods to look at all the interesting foods. Trader Joe’s is Heaven to me. The other day I stopped by the Market District Giant Eagle for the first time and got immediately sucked in by big loaves of artisan bread being baked. There were samples of each kind of bread. I tried cheese and jalapeno bread, apple cinnamon bread, and all sorts of different kinds of fancy artisan bread. I selected a nice round loaf of sourdough and had to resist taking a big bite out of it once I got in the car. I am happy to say it lasted long enough for me the stuff it full of goodies and serve with spaghetti for dinner.
Ingredients:
- 1 large round loaf of bread, uncut
- peperoni to taste
- bell peppers to taste
- lots of cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, parmesan, or all of them), grated
- black olives (optional)
- fresh flat leaf parsley
- 3 TBSP. melted butter
- 2 or 3 cloves garlic, pressed
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
1. Make long parallel cuts in the bread with a sharp serrated knife. Do not cut all the way through the bottom.
2. Turn the bread and make cuts along the bread perpendicular to the first set of cuts. There should be little squares of bread that are still attached to the base.
3. Melt the butter. Press the garlic into the melted butter. Using a pastry brush, brush the garlic butter into each crevice, working systematically until there is butter on every side of the little squares.
4. Stuff chopped up pepperoni, peppers, olives, and fresh parsley into all the slices and between all the morsels of bread. Seriously, stuff that bread full. I thought I stuffed it a lot, but once it was cooked I realized it could have used a lot more toppings.
5. Stuff lots of cheese between all the cracks. Lots. Of. Cheese. I used cheddar because its all I had, but I think it would be good with a mix of different Italian cheeses.
6. Brush some butter over the top of the loaf. Sprinkle lightly with garlic powder. Wrap the top of the loaf in tin foil. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheese gets all melty. Take the tin foil off for the last 5 minutes or so.
7. Dig in with your fingers. Serve with marinara dipping sauce.
Recipe by Edible Experiments
Wow. This looks fantastic.
Ok, where were you when I used to get, like, twenty of these from Helping Hands? I never knew what to do with them. Granted, they were sometimes as hard as rocks . . . rats. I will have to break down and buy a loaf, because this looks way too good to be true.
Have you ever heard of whole wheat sour dough bread? I just wondered if I could adapt this yummy recipe.
Oh, that is on the menu for the next football game for sure! yumm!