RECIPE: Cheesy French bread pizza in minutes
French bread pizza is usually a slapdash dinner thrown together with grocery store bread, jarred sauce and a bit of cheese. The bread is often soggy and limp, with either barely melted or completely charred cheese. It’s fine, when you need a meal in a pinch, but not exactly a substitute for professionally made pies. Luckily, it isn’t very difficult or time-consuming to make a great French bread pizza.
This recipe takes inspiration from one J. Kenji López-Alt published years ago on Serious Eats. I’ve streamlined and tweaked the method over the years to yield an easy and quick version, but the main objectives — turn average grocery store French bread (the variety from Publix works great) into garlic bread and melt some of the cheese under the sauce to prevent sogginess hold true. Smashing the halved loaf of bread before adding garlic butter and cheese helps to even out the bread in a flat layer (but don’t sweat it if you can’t get the bread completely flat).
Once you’ve tried this cheese-only version, feel free to tweak the toppings to your liking. My family loves a bit of pepperoni, but any topping — sausage, mushrooms, peppers or olives — would work well. Make sure to pre-cook anything that either takes more than 10 minutes to cook through or, like spinach, contains a lot of liquid that would seep into the pizza itself.
French Bread Pizza
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 (1-pound) loaf French bread, halved lengthwise
- 8 ounces shredded low-moisture mozzarella, divided
- 1 cup jarred marinara sauce, such as Rao’s
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
- On the side: Mixed green salad
- Heat the oven to 425 degrees with a rack placed in the upper third of the oven.
- Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until aromatic, 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.
- Place the bread halves cut-side down on a cutting board. Place a large baking sheet on top of the bread and press down firmly to flatten. Flip right-side up and place on the baking sheet. Brush with the garlic butter.
- Sprinkle half of the cheese over the bread halves. Transfer to the oven and cook until the cheese is melted, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and top with the sauce, followed by the remaining cheese and return to the oven. Continue to cook until the cheese is melted and browned, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with the parsley and drizzle with olive oil. Cut into slices and serve with salad on the side.
Nutritional information
Per serving: Per serving: 794 calories (percent of calories from fat, 46), 29 grams protein, 78 grams carbohydrates, 5 grams fiber, 41 grams total fat (23 grams saturated), 107 milligrams cholesterol, 1,386 milligrams sodium.Read more stories like this by liking Atlanta Restaurant Scene on Facebook, following @ATLDiningNews on Twitter and @ajcdining on Instagram.
