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Pull one slice of garlic bread away from loaf with cheese pulling away
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5 from 4 votes

Cheesy Pesto Garlic Bread

Cheesy Pesto Garlic Bread is the twist on garlic bread you never knew you needed. With an easy homemade pesto, this is THE ultimate finger food! Makes 12 pieces.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time35 minutes
Course: Appetizer, Side Dish
Cuisine: finger food
Servings: 6
Author: Chris Collins
Cost: £1.50 / $2

Equipment

  • Food Processor (for pesto)
  • Plastic Spatula (for spreading)
  • Foil (for baking)
  • Oven Tray

Ingredients

Homemade Garlicky Pesto

  • 2 small bunches of Fresh Basil (60g/2oz total)
  • 4 tbsp Pine Nuts, optionally toasted
  • 1/2 cup / 40g Freshly Grated Parmesan
  • 1/2 cup / 120ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 3 cloves of Garlic (see notes)
  • 1/2 tsp Salt, or to taste
  • 1/4 tsp Black Pepper, or to taste

Cheesy Bread

  • 1x 14oz/400g loaf of Bread (see notes)
  • 2.5 cups / 250g shredded Mozzarella

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
  • Pop all of the pesto ingredients in a food processor and pulse until well combined. You may need to stop and scrape the sides once or twice.
  • Slice the loaf of bread in half and spread the pesto over, ensuring you spread right to the edges. Individually wrap the bread in foil like a tent, making sure the foil isn’t touching the pesto. Bake in the oven for 10mins.
  • Take the bread out, unwrap the foil and sprinkle with mozzarella. Place back in the oven until the cheese goes golden and gooey (another 10mins or so).

Video

Notes

a) Bread - Here I use a White Bloomer. In general, I recommend using a flatfish loaf, no longer than around 12” and 14oz/400g in weight. Try and use a soft loaf or it’ll go too crunchy in the oven. French or Italian bread works great.
b) Garlic - For pesto GARLIC bread use the 3 cloves of garlic. For just a regular pesto I only use 1 clove.
c) Pesto - Check out my post on making basil pesto for extra tips and tricks on getting the perfect pesto. This recipe could also use chive and parsley pesto and sun-dried tomato pesto!
d) Calories - Shared between 6.

Nutrition

Calories: 470kcal | Carbohydrates: 37.32g | Protein: 21.3g | Fat: 26.56g | Saturated Fat: 4.617g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4.89g | Monounsaturated Fat: 15.327g | Trans Fat: 0.082g | Cholesterol: 14mg | Sodium: 1033mg | Potassium: 193mg | Fiber: 2.9g | Sugar: 1.36g | Vitamin A: 1450IU | Vitamin C: 2.5mg | Calcium: 500mg | Iron: 2.9mg