Transform Store-Bought Garlic Bread With A Pizza Twist
Garlic bread is one of life's simple pleasures. While everyone's recipe will vary when it comes to this delicious side dish, it's primarily made with French bread (or Italian bread), butter, and fresh garlic. But why eat a plain slice of garlic bread when you can turn it into another whole meal? Next time you're craving this savory snack, try building it into homemade pizza instead. Warning: Once you eat pizza with a garlic bread crust, you might never go back.
It's easy to turn almost anything into a pizza with a little sauce and cheese, but something about garlic bread just changes the game. There's a reason this food has been around since ancient Rome. Aside from being delicious, it's also incredibly easy and affordable to make, because it only has three main ingredients. Grab some good-quality tomato sauce, a little mozzarella, and some of your favorite toppings, and thank us later.
Making garlic bread pizza
To make garlic bread pizza from scratch, you only need five ingredients: bread, garlic, butter, sauce, and cheese. You can use oil, too, but butter will add a richer flavor. Feel free to season the garlic butter with any desired seasonings, such as oregano and parsley. The process for making the garlic bread pizza is simple: Add the butter to the bread, coat it in sauce and cheese, and bake it until the outside of the bread starts to crisp up and the cheese is fully melted.
While that's the easiest method, you can also get creative with your toppings and cooking methods. Add some sliced pepperoni, bell peppers, or even a drizzle of honey for plenty of flavor. For an extra kick, pair the honey with crushed red pepper. How you cook it is up to you, but this dish will come just right in either the oven or the air fryer.
It all comes down to the garlic butter
The perfect garlic bread pizza will get most of its flavor from one area: the garlic butter. You can make your garlic butter using fresh garlic, sautéed garlic, or roasted garlic. Fresh garlic is the easiest because it doesn't require any advance prep, but it will also have the strongest flavor, so be careful how much you use. Sautéed garlic only needs just a few minutes in hot oil in order for it to brown and become fragrant, so it changes the flavor without adding much time.
If you want to roast the garlic, give yourself some time. This is arguably the richest flavor, but it takes about an hour. You can roast the whole head of garlic at once, but make sure to coat it in good-quality olive oil before putting it in the oven; this helps soften the garlic and create that rich, deep flavor. To prevent the garlic from burning, wrap it in aluminum foil, making sure it's completely sealed. Remember to be careful when opening the foil, as the oil will be scorching hot. If you choose this method, you'll likely want to use the whole head of garlic to flavor the butter, depending on the size of your bread.