Garlic Valley Farms - Italian Garlic Bread

Italian Garlic Bread - Magnifico!

The History Behind The Lost Garlic Bread Recipe.

Maria and Antonio Gaetani lived near Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily. Antonio was a part-time orchardist and full time fisherman. Maria was, it is reputed, the best cook anyone could ever remember. Her specialty was seafood with ample garlic and her cannoli (made with sheep's milk ricotta) and garlic bread, especially the bread. Maria could not read nor write, everything was a pinch of this and a bit of that type of recipe, but it was magnificent to the taste.

Sometimes when making her garlic bread she would use olive oil instead of butter - both ways it was delicious. One thing she never wavered from was using the juice of the garlic clove and not the pulp of the garlic clove. Garlic juice and warm butter is the only way to get the garlic flavor deep into the bread so that the bread has a total garlic flavor - this cannot happen with garlic cloves because the pulp does not soak into the bread. Maria never revealed her recipe, never wrote it down, but her son, Raffaele did because he loved the bread so. His granddaughter found the recipe among his things in his home in northern Italy near Milano in 2001. We offer it to you here because, like Maria, we think that the best garlic bread is made with the juice.

THE CASTELLAMMARE DEL GOLFO METHOD

Melt butter and mix in equal amount of garlic juice with melted butter.

Lightly toast bread.

Spread melted butter-garlic juice combination on bread.

Again, lightly toast until butter & garlic juice combination are slightly bubbly.

Serve warm.

P.S. Don't forget to add garlic juice to your pasta sauce, too.

ALTERNATE METHOD

Spray bread with garlic juice and toast lightly.

Remove from oven, spray again with garlic juice and then spread on the butter.

Toast the bread lightly again until the butter and juice melts and enters the bread.

Serve warm.