Throughout the years, we make a simple garlic bread that was the traditional style my grandmother made while I was growing up.
As a child I still can remember the aroma of her baking homemade round and they will a dense thick bread.
The next day or so turned it into this mouth-watering garlic bread.
If that was leftover, she would make homemade croutons or bread crumbs!
Bread is a staple in an Italian home, and addicting, we all can't eat a meal without salad or making Sunday Tomato Sauce, the bread is how we test the sauce!
We all love a good-tasting olive oil to dip the homemade bread in, it's a banquet all by itself, and those who grew up in an Italian home, totally understand.
As the years went by, carbs are always a concern, but that didn't change here, we still have our bread on the table and it's still served with every meal especially Italian Stew, pasta fagioli and Greens and Beans that was delicious over stale bread.
This recipe is featured in Tuscany School of Cooking and mentioned as one of the Top Italian Food Bloggers, I am very proud of my heritage and thank them for acknowledging this recipe.
Cooking doesn't have to be complicated to be delicious and this is a simple start to a perfect meal.
Check out the links below for several of our favorite recipes!
Bread
There was always bread on the table with any meal mom or grandmom made.
Whether we were sitting there with just sliced deli meats and cheeses or delicious pots of stew, this bread will be a compliment to any appetizer or meal. Great for snacks late at night too.
Mom even uses to make a poor man's pizza when I was a kid quick and easy.
Poor man's pizza is just garlic bread spread with sauce and sprinkled with mozzarella cheese.
Ingredients You Will Need
For the Garlic Bread:
- day-old Italian bread
- fresh cloves of garlic smashed
- Extra virgin olive oil first cold pressed (good grade)
- Freshly cracked black pepper
- Dried Oregano
- Grated cheese ( We love a blend of Parmesan and Romano cheese grated)
- Sea salt
For Dipping Oil:
- basil leaves
- Parmesan cheese
- roasted pumpkin seeds or roasted pine nuts
- garlic cloves, chopped
- salt
- Kalamata olives
- olive oil
- additional olive oil and bread for serving
Recipes We Love
No-Knead Bread
Pizza Dough
Foccacia
Garlic Knots
Panzerotti
Runza
Homemade Cheesy Garlic Sticks
Pin for later
Perfect Accompaniments
We love to use it to spread olive tapenade. shown in the first photo. It's the perfect spread for this easy and quick garlic bread. We also love her White Tuscan Bean dip, which is also wonderful on this bread.
Making homemade bread, (as grandma always had a loaf baking) was a double treat.
The bread hardly made it to the table or turned into garlic bread unless she made many loaves.
The next day she would make it into garlic bread.
We just love to make dipping oil for the freshly baked bread along with garlic bread.

Grandma's Tuscan Garlic Bread
Yield: 4
Prep time: 5 MCook time: 3 MTotal time: 8 M
This is how to make delicious Tuscan garlic bread. The bread is toasted and is slathered with a good grade olive oil and fresh garlic along with herbs. There is also a delicious dipping oil recipe to try with freshly made Italian bread.
Ingredients:
- 4 slices day-old Italian bread or more (here is an Easy Homemade Bread recipe)
- 2 large fresh cloves of garlic smashed
- Extra virgin olive oil first cold pressed (good grade)
- Freshly cracked black pepper
- Dried Oregano
- Grated cheese ( We love a blend of Parmesan and Romano cheese grated)
- Sea salt
Instructions:
- The quality of the oil is very important for the best results with this recipe.
- Toast the bread under the broiler on both sides to light brown in color.
- While still warm and crisp, rub the smashed garlic cloves all over both sides of the bread.
- Sprinkle with freshly cracked black pepper and salt.
- Drizzle with olive oil all over the slices and sprinkle with oregano and grated cheese.
- Serve immediately.
- Best tasting while still warm and oil hasn't soaked through the bread.
- Dipping Oil Recipe (for fresh bread, not garlic bread)
- 1 cup basil leaves
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup roasted pumpkin seeds or roasted pine nuts
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 Kalamata olives
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- additional olive oil and bread for serving
- Using a food processor, combine the basil, cheese, pumpkin seeds or nuts, garlic, salt, and olives.
- Process until ingredients form a paste Add the 1/4 cup of olive oil until well combined.
- Place a tablespoon of this paste into a flat serving dish. Pour olive oil ( around 4 tablespoons or more) on this paste in your dipping plate and stir, dip your bread into it and enjoy! Makes a little more than 1 cup
Grandma's Tuscan Bread Pin for later
Top Italian Recipes We Love:
15 Best Pasta Recipes
30 Appetizers and Side Dishes
20 Bean Recipes
15 One Pan Meals
Disclosure: This recipe was originally shared in 2014. It was edited and re-published in 2020.
My mouth is watering just reading the recipe. Can't wait to try it!
ReplyDeleteWe are big bread fans in my home too! We cannot have any kind of pasta without a bread side and this recipe will do just the trick!
ReplyDeleteLast night I made this delicious Tuscan garlic bread. It was so darn good, and a perfect way to use leftover bread. I look forward to trying your dipping oil with a loaf of freshly-made bread, which is happening this Memorial Day weekend!
ReplyDelete