Sunday, October 20, 2013

Hot St. Louis Cardinals Dip (AKA: Baked Mozzarella and Marinara Dip)


I’ve been wanting to make this for a few days now. Just a simple, quick and great tasting hot dip for a party or for game day. I love that the colors of this dip are red and white, just like our Redbirds!! If you really want to get your St. Louis on, you might want to try provel cheese in place of some or all of the mozzarella. Just saying. Also, you can skip toasting the bread and just use bread chunks, pita chips, bread sticks, whatever.

Ingredients:
1 (1/2 to 1 pound) loaf unsliced Italian bread, cubed into 2 inch chunks
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 ½ cups prepared marinara
8 ounces fresh (or aged-you choose) mozzarella, cut into ¼ inch thick slices
¼ cup grated parmesan
1 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil and place the bread cubes on it. Toss with the olive oil and bake 5 minutes. Toss the bread cubes and toast another 5 or so minutes. You want them just lightly toasted, but still soft in the middle.

Next, turn the oven up to 350 degrees F. Spray a small casserole dish (mine is a shallow, 1.3 quart dish) with cooking spray. Place the dish on a baking sheet to prevent spillovers. Ladle in the marinara and then top with mozzarella, letting some of the marinara show through. Toss together the parmesan and garlic salt and sprinkle over the top. Bake on the top rack of your oven for 35-40 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and browning on top.

Serve hot with bread cubes.

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