Combine These 2 Fats For The Best-Tasting Garlic Bread

It's hard to mess up garlic bread; you'd probably have to actively try. But there's decent garlic bread, and then there's a really spectacular slice — and, according to Luke Jacobellis, owner of Tony's New York Pizza in Newbury Park, California, a little olive oil can make all the difference. 

There's nothing wrong with butter. "Buttered garlic bread is the classic," Jacobellis told The Takeout. "Butter spread on the bread with granulated garlic, parsley, and some good parm or romano cheese is always the easy but still tasty way. Olive oil is just a little more fancy."

Since you're adding olive oil for flavor, skip refined olive oils in favor of extra virgin options. While refined products are great for high-heat cooking, you shouldn't use these olive oils for drizzling because they're not as flavorful as extra virgin varieties. Quality matters, too. This is the time to break out the best olive oils that you reserve for special occasions, not the cheap stuff that you use for sauteeing vegetables.

Sticking to standard butter and garlic on a slice of bread means that you don't get the opportunity to explore. There are plenty of different ways to prepare garlic bread, so you can search around to find your favorite technique. "The sky's the limit!" said Luke Jacobellis. "Garlic bread is whatever you want it to be. There's no real exact way to make it; it's what you like. Grill it, bake it, stovetop it — it's going to be good no matter what."

That said, Jacobellis does feel some of the best garlic bread is made on the stovetop. "Take a pan on the stove, add some oil, fresh shaved garlic, and whatever other spices you like to the oil, then put your bread face down, let it soak up all those things and get crispy, and you are good to go," the restaurant owner instructed.

You can experiment with flavor by preparing your garlic in different ways before adding it to the bread, too. While Jacobellis recommended granulated or fresh, roasting garlic in the oven adds a caramelized note to your garlic bread and gives the allium a soft, buttery texture.

You don't have to stop at fat, garlic, and bread, either. Turn your garlic bread from an appetizer to a full meal by adding cheese, vegetables, and other toppings. "Add fresh burrata or mozzarella melted on top or tomatoes and onions," Jacobellis said. "You can even use it to make your favorite sandwich more tasty."