{"id":1137,"date":"2016-06-30T20:52:20","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T20:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/?p=1137"},"modified":"2016-07-01T20:52:49","modified_gmt":"2016-07-01T20:52:49","slug":"bread-of-the-month-mastering-great-garlic-bread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/?p=1137","title":{"rendered":"Bread of the Month: Mastering great garlic bread"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"garlic01\"<\/a>[I]\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve eaten a lot of good garlic bread, even making some myself (often an herb-infused-in-olive oil version), but I had not eaten GREAT garlic bread until I sat down at the table of Liboria Salerno (for more about her, please see blog entry, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Presenting Pavlova to a ballerina\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of 6\/16).
\n\"garlicCook01\"<\/a>The bread was toasted to a perfect crunch, saturated with just the right amount of butter that had been infused with thin slices of garlic, roasted to an ideal aromatic sweetness, sprinkled with a melting net of Parmesan cheese, and topped with….what was that….? \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I sprinkle on a little paprika, for color,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Libby tells me.<\/p>\n

I have had the good fortune to sit down a number of times at my friend Libby\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s table and enjoy her cooking — from meatballs to cannoli — which she crafts with ease and enthusiasm in her mini kitchen in a senior apartment. All of her food is delicious; her garlic bread, exceptional.<\/p>\n

She, at 80-something, is the kind of good cook who has rendered her creations to just the right ingredients which are, as in this case the garlic, prepared just the right way. Garlic chopped or pressed for garlic \"spread01\"<\/a>bread puts it in such a state that it will burn your nose hairs off — bitter and hot is not the best taste for garlic bread, unless you like that kind of punishment. This slightly smashed and sliced-thin preparation gives you the garlic taste, but not the burn. The garlic releases its juices and flavors into the softened butter in which it is blended, then it is spread thickly on slabs of good French bread baguette. <\/p>\n

She also scores the baguette, cutting slices that stop before going all the way through the crust, to keep the flavorful butter sealed in and make serving the bread a pull-apart ease.<\/p>\n

Libby and I, despite living a mere few miles apart, send each other missives across the Napa River that separates us. We believe in mailing out those old-fashioned greetings known as handwritten paper cards, letters, postcards and notes. On one lucky day, I received a postcard with Libby\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lively script, sharing the recipe for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Garlic Bread ala Liboria\u00e2\u20ac\u009d! I was thrilled and was soon slicing garlic.<\/p>\n