A favorite restaurant of ours is Garibaldi’s. We grew up on this place and I’m sure many others from Arlington Heights area feel the same way. When it closed several years ago it was completely devastating, luckily it has since reopened (although at a different and less convenient AH location)!
During some of my high school and college years, I had a boyfriend that was a Garibaldi’s addict. Like it’s basically the only restaurant we EVER went to. We probably ate a Garibaldi’s a couple times every week. How embar! Anyways, my go-to order was Garlic Pizza Bread. You can not tire of their Garlic Pizza Bread.
First of all, Garibaldi’s has the best garlic bread. They serve it with all the pasta dishes. It’s 2 big halves of bread toasted to buttery/garlic perfection. Now…imagine a pizza baked on top of the best garlic bread.
I know.
The word you’re looking for is amazeballs.
I don’t know why it took us so long to recreate this long-time favorite. But it did. Our garlic bread pizza turned out AMAZEBALLS! Even better than Garibaldi’s…in my opinion. It was super cheesy and super toasted and superrr delicious.
Here’s what you’ll need
In a cast iron skillet, heat the butter and garlic
Cut the bread like so
We jazzed up our store-bought pizza sauce
Toast the bread in the butter/garlic, open side down
Add plenty of pizza sauce on the bread. And don’t be skimpy with the cheese either
Pop in the oven until melty and golden brown. Holy YUM!
- 1 loaf crusty French bread
- 8 slices mozzarella cheese
- 1 can pizza sauce
- ½ tablespoon Italian seasoning, plus more for sprinkling on top
- pinch of salt and pepper
- 3 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
- 6 tablespoons butter, softened
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- Cut loaf of bread into 6 inch rectangles, then each in half lengthwise.
- Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a skillet and add the minced garlic. With the heat still on, place 1-2 loaves at a time face down in the skillet, swirling it to soak up the butter and garlic. Allow bread to toast in the skillet, removing garlic if it starts to get too brown.
- Repeat with the remaining bread.
- In a small bowl, stir together the pizza sauce, basil, Italian seasoning and a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Spoon pizza sauce on the toasted sides of each loaf, then place 2 slices of mozzarella on top of the sauce. Let the cheese hang over the edges a bit, this will just make it more gooey and delicious. Sprinkle lightly with Italian seasoning.
- Bake in a 350 degree oven until cheese is hot and bubbly, about 10 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
