Pane Criminale

by Samin Nosrat, featured in Good Things

Published by Ebury

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Introduction

Back when I cooked monthly dinners at Tartine bakery, I tried to incorporate their extraordinary bread into every menu. At some point, I began scoring loaves destined to become garlic bread vertically rather than halving them horizontally. The brilliance of this small tweak is that it allows for a maximal ratio of garlic butter to bread. The resulting loaf was so laden with garlic, herb, and Parmesan butter that it was, well, criminally good. Friends soon started calling it pane criminale. This recipe shines when made with a rustic loaf of farmhouse-style bread, but baguettes work well, too. Either way, use the most flavourful, crustiest bread you can find—it’ll make all the difference.

As featured in

Good Things

Image of Samin Nosrat's Pane Criminale — Photo by Aya Brackett

Ingredients

Makes: 1 x 450g loaf or 2 x 225g baguettes

10 large garlic cloves (peeled)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
114 grams unsalted butter (at room temperature)
20 grams parsley leaves, basil leaves, and/or chives (finely chopped)
30 grams finely grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon garlic powder
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 x 450 grams loaf of rustic farmhouse-style bread or 2 x 225g baguettes

Method

Pane Criminale is a guest recipe by Samin Nosrat so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe

Adjust an oven rack to the centre position and preheat to 200°C.
Mince 8 of the garlic cloves. Gently heat a small saucepan over medium-low and add the oil and minced garlic. Cook, stirring and swirling constantly, until the garlic is tender and fragrant, about 7 minutes. Do not allow it to take on any colour. (If you sense the garlic is starting to brown, remove the pan from the heat, and add a few drops of water.) Pour the garlic and oil into a medium heatproof bowl and set aside to cool.
Finely grate the remaining 2 garlic cloves. When the minced garlic and oil have cooled to room temperature, stir in the grated garlic, butter, chopped herbs, Parmesan, garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste.
Deeply score the bread in 1-inch slices, but don’t cut all the way through. Use an offset spatula to generously spread garlic butter on one side of each slice, as far down as you can reach. Wrap the bread in aluminium foil and place it on a baking tray.
Bake for 20 minutes (10 minutes for baguettes). Unwrap the top of the loaf and bake until the crust is browned and crisp, 5 to 8 minutes longer. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before serving.