Today’s dish is basically a delicious math lesson.
How many squares do you need to cut into this loaf to feed two people appropriately? Answer: not nearly enough.
How many calories does this bread have if you stand over the oven and eat it while it’s piping hot — and ignore the fact that you might burn your hands? Answer: zero. Calories only count when you sit down.
How many minutes will this bread last if you make it for a few friends or maybe just for yourself? Answer: none.
I promise there’s an actual snack under all that cheese. Maybe.
This all began with a cheddar tailgating bread idea from years ago, and it’s also a spinoff of that ridiculous white pizza dip I shared a while back — the dip four of us polished off in minutes. The combination of flavors is just that good.
Start with great bread; sourdough is my pick, but use whatever you like.
Then comes the parmesan-garlic-thyme butter. Yes — parmesan-garlic-thyme butter. Real butter. I nearly drank it.
Instead, I poured it into every crevice of the loaf so I could savor it later.
Next: sun-dried tomatoes. I skipped roasted cherry tomatoes because I didn’t want extra moisture making the bread soggy. Sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped, give concentrated flavor without watering down the loaf.
And the cheese — piles of it. Stuffed in the cracks, blanketing the top, bubbling down the sides. If you think you need a certain amount, double it. That’s my new motto.
I tested this bread two ways. First: the easy version — buy a good, already-baked loaf, slice it, fill it, and call it a recipe. It’s the lazy, brilliant approach that actually works.
Second: I tried making my own dough and building a stuffed pull-apart loaf from scratch, rolling and cutting and tucking cheese and butter inside. That version was too doughy and didn’t bake up the way I wanted — a bit of a fail. A store-bought, big, crunchy loaf wins every time for this particular recipe.
So yeah — use a sturdy bakery loaf. It just works.
P.S. I will fight you for that burnt, bubbly cheese.
White Pizza Pull Apart Bread
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Ingredients
- 1 loaf sourdough or Italian bread
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoon grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 1/3 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
- 4 ounces fontina cheese, freshly grated
- 4 ounces mozzarella cheese, freshly grated
- 2 ounces provolone cheese, freshly grated
- fresh basil leaves, for topping
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a sharp knife, cut a grid pattern into the loaf, leaving about an inch uncut at the bottom so the slices stay together. It helps to slice lengthwise first, then crosswise to form the grid.
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Loosely tent the bread with foil and warm it in the oven for 10 minutes.
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Melt the butter in the microwave or a small saucepan. Stir in the minced garlic immediately, then add the grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and the thyme leaves. Gently pry apart the bread squares and drizzle the butter mixture into the crevices. Press the chopped sun-dried tomatoes into the gaps as well. Combine the grated cheeses, then stuff them into the crevices and pile some on top.
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Bake the bread uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cheese is golden and bubbling. Remove from the oven, sprinkle extra Parmigiano-Reggiano over the top, add fresh basil leaves, and serve immediately.
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