Carrabbas is an Italian restaurant in the United States. It is one of my favorite restaurants to eat at. This link shows their menu. The Chicken Bryan is my favorite, which is described as grilled chicken breast, topped with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes and a basil lemon butter sauce. It is every bit as good as it sounds. They even have a gluten-free menu!
But today, I am not talking about gluten-free. I am talking about my second favorite thing at Carrabbas and that is their bread dip. They bring you a little plate with a spoon of seasoning on it, and then pour a little olive oil in the plate. It is for dipping your bread into. My whole family are big bread eaters and with this dip, we could practically make a meal of the bread. They usually have to bring us a second basket before our salad even arrives.
After leaving the restaurant one evening, we were talking about how fantastic the bread dip was. I bake bread every week, but we didn’t have anything this good to dip it in. Imagine if we could dip our own homemade bread into this..anytime we wanted…it seemed almost too good to be true. When I got home, I searched on the internet (how did we survive before the internet???), and found copycat recipes, here and here. I used the second one because it is a little easier, without fresh basil and parsley and also because it was the first one I found!
Carrabba’s Italian Grill Bread Dip Mix
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
Mix together.
To use, put 1 tablespoon of mixture in a small bowl. Pour extra virgin olive oil over and mix together. Dip warm sourdough French bread into the mixture.
I store this in the refrigerator and use it all week long.
This is my entry for this weeks Weekend Herb Blogging , which is being hosted by it’s esteemed founder Kalyn of Kalyns Kitchen.
i used fresh basil, yummy!
Thanks so much for this recipe! My husband and I are stationed overseas in Japan and have been craving foods from home! Thanks!!
Sounds tasty. I recently tried dipping bread in olive oil and dukkah.
Peter, Marjie, Anh, Kalyn, Gay Carillo, and SueCooksWild – thanks for the interest in this recipe. I just realized that the one I make is actually a little different. Instead of garlic powder it calls for granulated garlic. I just use a little garlic salt in addition to the fresh garlic. So, if you make it with the garlic powder, please let me know how it is.
Katiez and Vegeyum, there is no self control when eating bread dipped in this. On the plus side, we have no stale bread getting moldy when I have this in the fridge!
Thanks so much for this recipe! We have a Carraba’s within walking distance of our house and it is one of my favorite Italian eateries also. We can order carry out and have it home in an instant. I agree with you that their bread and dipping oil/herbs are the best. Now I can make it at home also thanks to you.
I love this one and will try it myself one of these days.
I love olive oil with bread. And then to have it with herbs – even better. Any hints to maintain self control?
Yes, I’d have a serious self control problem with this too, just like Katie. But it sounds fantastic. OK, I’m saving the recipe just in case I weaken and decide to make it.
I would not even THINK of making this…I’d never stop eating the bread! Warm bread, olive oil, and all those wonderful flavors? Oh my!
Yum yum! I am currently trying to make different type of dips/spreads that can be stored for a few days and broght to work. Yours comes handy, thanks! 🙂
OOOH, OOOOH, OOOH! I want some! You bet I’ll be trying this!
I like these flavoured oils and it’s a “no brainer” to try this out, thanks!