Recently, I had dinner at a cozy little Italian restaurant. While the pasta was quite good, it was the bread that was the star of the show. I mean, I would go there just to have this bread. It was a simple round loaf, covered with sesame seeds. It was hot and crusty on the outside and light and feathery on the inside. Deeeelicious.  Sounds good right? Well, as if that wasn’t good enough, it came with a melted chunk of brie cheese and a bulb of roasted garlic. We slathered both the garlic and brie on the hot crusty bread. It was amazing. Seriously, we really enjoyed this treat. I even asked the server where I could get the bread. He told me and do you know that I drove to the bakery that makes this bread! Yes, I sure did.

So, I walked into the bakery and looked for the bread in a frenzied state…..hahahahahah. I asked the young gal there about the bread. Now, here she is surrounded by bread…….ALL KINDS OF BREAD and what does she say to me? “well, I don’t really know that much about breads”. I couldn’t believe it and for some reason it annoyed me. After all, I drove miles and miles to find my bread (ok,  16 miles). I said “you work in a bakery surrounded by bread and you don’t know about bread….how does that happen?” She just looked at me and offered me a sample of some crappy, chewy bread. So, then she told me that the loaf I was looking for was made only for restaurants. I left the bakery annoyed at her and disappointed that I was leaving without my bread.

I ended up buying a French loaf, brushing it with olive oil and sprinkling sesame seeds all over it. I didn’t have the time to wait for roasting a bulb of garlic, so I made garlic butter, spread it on the bread, and put it in the oven, along with a nice wedge of brie cheese wrapped in foil. YUMMMMMMMMM. I have to say, that it was every bit as good as the dish I had at the restaurant. I highly recommend that you make this. It goes great with a nice glass of white wine, or prosecco. I’m hungry.

Brie Cheese & Garlic Bread Melt

1 loaf of good French bread with sesame seeds (or plain French bread, lightly brushed with olive oil or butter and coated with sesame seeds)
garlic butter (1 stick of butter mixed with 2 cloves of fresh, minced garlic)
1 good sized chunk of brie cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix together the butter and minced garlic. Split the french bread in half and spread the garlic butter on both halves. Place the bread on a baking sheet. Loosely wrap the brie cheese in aluminum foil. Place the packet on the same baking sheet as the bread. Place sheet in oven and bake until bread is crusty and butter is melted, about 10 minutes or so.

Remove from oven check to see if brie cheese is melty. Carefully scoop cheese off the foil and place it on a plate, along with the bread.

To eat, just take a bit of melty brie and spread it on a piece  of bread. Don’t forget to pour yourself a glass of vino!!