1. First and FAVORITE step: heat 3 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of olive oil in medium pan. Add in 4 cloves of chopped garlic, then toss in red pepper flakes (as much to your liking, I used about 1 teaspoon), a nice dash of salt, and about ½ teaspoon of dried oregano. Let that cook about 2 mins until garlic is tender but not brown. (Its going to be really hard removing this from heat and stopping the aromatics going on in your kitchen and blossoming through your house but you will have to do it soon, so I want to prepare you ahead of time! I did it, and so can you.)
2. Add to butter mixture ¼ cup of parsley and ¼ cup of basil once the garlic is cooked. (This is where the original said parsley OR basil and I wrote down both...but the more, the merrier, I say, because it tasted fabulous nonetheless!) Then remove from heat. (You'll turn it back on later I promise, it'll smell good again!)
3. Next cut your french bread in half, lengthwise. (The original recipe said to use a cookie sheet to compress your bread, I don't really know what it did for the bread, but you think it'd be fun, go for it!) Start preheating oven to 425°f.
4. Next, using half of the butter herb mixture, spread it evenly on the bread. As weird as it is to say, I don't think Ive said this before regarding food, but this recipe is so darned pretty. All the herbs and garlic, with the bursts of color from the peppers. Its so nice to look at, on top of it being the best smell!
Then turn the heat back on and add to the remaining butter mixture 1 can of crushed tomatoes or be cheap like me and buy diced tomatoes and run them through a blender for a sec. Let that simmer on low for about 15 minutes.
5. Place the loaves on a cookie sheet then add a little mozzarella to the bread and pop in the oven for about 8 mins just to toast.
6. All nice and toasty! Now time for sauce...
7. Spread half of the sauce onto the bread. Its starting to look like pizza now!
8. Then sprinkle on generous amounts of mozzarella. I got one of the bags of mozzarella that is about the same size as a bag with string cheese and it was perfect, sorry I didn't check how many oz but the original recipe suggests 8oz. Bake at 425°f for 10 minutes
9. After about 10 minutes it was all melted but I turned on broil and let it sit in there for another 1:30seconds just to brown on the top a bit. Now its done!
On the other half loaf I added chopped up sausage links I had, a much cheaper alternative to pepperoni but add WHATEVER you'd like! Pizza is so great like that! Hurry to step 10...
10. As soon as the pizza comes out of the oven add on top 1/2 cup Parmesan (I used a mix of shredded and grated) and ¼ cup of both parsley and basil. Get it while its hot!
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 4 cloves garlic, red pepper flakes, ½ teaspoon dried oregano, ½ cup parsley (split in half, ¼ cups), ½ cup basil (split in half, ¼ cups), salt, 1 loaf of french bread, can of crushed or diced tomatoes, 8 oz or medium bag of mozzarella, 2 oz or ½ cup Parmesan
If you liked this take on this Italian favorite try my others:
Tiramisu
Lasagna
Chicken Parmesan
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