This Salad Dressing Is The Magic Ingredient For Life-Changing Garlic Bread

There's no denying garlic bread's exalted position in the pantheon of yeasty delights. The Italian-American comfort food graces red sauce joints galore, but has also made a home for itself in many people's at-home roster of easy dinners. Whether you've soured on the basic garlic bread preparation or love the side dish so much that you'd like to experiment with new ways to enjoy it, there's an ingredient that makes for an unbelievable experience: Italian dressing.

At once zesty and herbaceous, Italian dressing (an American innovation, naturally) is typically a vinaigrette-style dressing. Bottled varieties often include ingredients like water, lemon juice, vinegar, lots of herbs, bell pepper, oil, and aromatics like onion and garlic. While classic garlic bread tends to rely on the simple, timeless combination of a fat (oil or butter) and garlic or garlic salt, making the bread with Italian dressing adds several new dimensions and nuances, thanks to the varied ingredients within the mixture.

Before cooking your garlic bread in the oven, at the stage when you'd brush your bread with butter or oil, simply drizzle on some of your favorite Italian dressing, either in lieu of or in addition to your standard garlic bread trappings. Too much may result in a soggy finished product, while too little may result in a lack of moisture that normal garlic bread has. So tinker with the quantity until you're able to unlock the tangy goodness of the dressing within the comforting context of garlic bread.

While simple is often the easiest avenue for success, there are many tweaks, big and small, you can make when preparing garlic bread with Italian dressing. The first lies within the dressing itself. You can read up on different varieties of salad dressings in this guide and discover what makes Italian dressing so singularly appealing. Bottled brands or homemade, once you have your herby vinaigrette settled, you can get to the heart of the matter. Try a simple garlic bread recipe, which calls for butter, garlic, fresh parsley, and a ciabatta loaf, and drizzle on your Italian dressing of choice.

If you find the right dressing-to-bread ratio, consider using the garlic bread as a launchpad for other dishes. For example, Italian dressing garlic bread may make for the perfect zingy base for some bruschetta. Try this classic bruschetta recipe and tweak it with dressing in mind. Or, thinking a little to the left and right of what is classically considered garlic bread, try brushing on some Italian dressing to your pizza crusts. This cast iron veggie pizza is the perfect starting point for your Italian dressing adventures to come.