Pesto & three-cheese hedgehog garlic bread

Filled with homemade pesto butter and oozy mozzarella, this hedgehog-style garlic bread will have everyone coming back for a second chunk. It’s particularly good dunked into tomato soup.

Ingreadient

• 2 clove/s garlic, peeled
• 1 Cooks’ Ingredients Medium Basil Pot
• 50g pine nut kernels
• 50g Parmigiano Reggiano, roughly chopped
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 90g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 large sourdough loaf (600-650g)
• 75g Taleggio, chopped
• 100g Waitrose Grated Mozzarella

Step by step

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C, gas mark 6. Put the garlic in a mini food processor or high-speed blender with the basil leaves and stalks, pine nuts, Parmigiano Reggiano and oil; season. Whizz until smooth, then whizz in the butter to make a vibrant pesto butter.
2. Make slashes in the sourdough loaf in a criss-cross pattern, cutting almost down to the base of the loaf and spacing the cuts around 2-2.5cm apart. Gently prise open the bread and evenly spoon in the pesto butter, chopped Taleggio and grated mozzarella, pushing down into all the nooks and crannies. Rub any extra pesto butter over the top of the bread. Wrap the loaf in foil, put on a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes, then remove the foil and continue to bake for a further 8-10 minutes until the bread is golden and oozy. Serve straight away.