I have long said that the secret to good garlic bread is just having the courage to put enough butter on it. But maybe that’s not all it is. Maybe it’s about having another little trick up your sleeve and upping the flavor by roasting that garlic. This Roasted Garlic Bread Spread does that and so much more. It’s layered with incredible flavor and makes the best garlic bread you’ll ever have. But, great news — that’s not all you can do with it!

What Ingredients Do You Need for Roasted Garlic Bread Spread?

It’s so simple. You need:

• Three heads of garlic. Yes, three.
• Two sticks of butter.
• Some parsley.
• A bit of Italian seasoning.
• Salt and pepper.

Oh, and some olive oil. That’s it.

How Do You Make Roasted Garlic Bread Spread?

It’s a little time intensive since roasting garlic takes a minute, but it’s simple and well worth it. You start by roasting the garlic:

I find the easiest way to do this is to slice the top quarter-inch or so off of the heads of garlic, leaving the rest of the head intact and attached. Place them all on a big piece of foil, drizzle the tops with some olive oil, and wrap that foil up. (You can sprinkle them with a touch of salt, too. That never hurts.) Bake them at 350 for at least forty minutes. You want them to be squeezably soft, and forty minutes will get you there, but ten more minutes or so will deepen that sweet roasted flavor even more.

Once the garlic has cooled enough for you to handle it, you simply squeeze the cloves out from the head and mix it with the butter, chopped parsley, and seasonings. You definitely want softened butter here to make your life easy but you won’t need a food processor — a wooden spoon will do just fine. I like to stir this enough so that the garlic is running evenly throughout but still has some nice chunks here and there too.

How Can You Use This?

I mean, you might be tempted just to eat it off the spoon. But, you can use it right away by spreading it on a loaf of bread and broiling it until it’s nice and crispy. This is enough spread to cover two loafs of French bread.

You can also chill it until you need it, and use it as a flavored butter. I’ve stirred it into pasta… it’s great in mashed potatoes and rice. It’s great on SO many things.

You can also opt to roll the butter into a log in some plastic wrap and chill it until it’s sliceable. Then you have more of a compound butter and you can slice it to use to top steak, chicken, fish, and more. (It’s also great on veggies — grilled, roasted, or steamed!)