Quick and easy Garlic Bread

I'm on a bit of a recipe kick right now, so I figured I'd share this. Especially since I just got done eating it.

Quick and easy Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

Bread, toasted
Garlic, one clove per slice of bread
Salt, dash
Extra-virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon per slice of bread


Toast the bread lightly, until it is just barely showing some color. (I use Maier's Seeded Italian.) Place on microwave-safe plate.

Grate garlic onto bread, one (or more) cloves per slice. (There is no such thing as "too much garlic.") I use a plane grater, but you can use a garlic press if you prefer.

Sprinkle salt lightly onto bread.

Pour extra-virgin olive oil onto bread through the garlic. Extra-virgin has the strongest taste, which is why I recommend it. I specify a teaspoon, but I just use enough to lightly coat the bread once it's spread around.

Now for the spooky science part...

Put the plate with the bread into the microwave on HIGH for 25 seconds for two slices.


I have a friend who is a professional chef who swears you should never microwave bread. It changes it structurally and does other nasty things on a chemical level. But in this case, as in some others, that's what I want. The microwaving transforms the toast with olive oil and garlic into something soft yet tough, chewy and slightly crisp.

I have made this a standard companion to spaghetti. This evening I was having some spaghetti for dinner and realized something was missing. And then it hit me: I didn't have my garlic bread to go with it! So I set aside my bowl of spaghetti and ran out to the kitchen to make some. And that brings us to...here.