Stuffed Veggie Bread

Stuffed bread turned up during a recent meal planning discussion, and for good reason. Melissa came across several recipes on Pinterest and our Wisconsin food blogger friend Alison made Stuffed Veggie Bread recently.

So we set off to the store and the kitchen with a couple of roadmaps in hand.

The first (and what this blog post was going to be) was for Stuffed Pizza Bread. Alas, we realized when we started making it that we lacked mozzarella cheese, and it didn't feel right to call this recipe "pizza" without it.

Instead, this one morphed into Stuffed Veggie Bread, but there's nothing wrong with that. We'll just throw on some Parmesan instead. (Insert Wisconsin cheese giddiness.)

• Feel free to use less butter, if you're so inclined. We mixed in a lot of garlic and wanted to have those flavors in the dish, but you can always decrease the butter and garlic.

Stuffed Veggie Bread
4 servings

1 loaf Italian bread
1 stick butter
4 garlic cloves
2 to 3 green onions, chopped
1 green pepper, diced
2 to 3 large mushrooms, diced
10 to 12 black olives, diced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
pasta sprinkles for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. While the oven is heating, melt the butter and garlic together in the microwave. (Tip: Watch the butter or it will overflow if you put too much time on.)

2. Slice the bread in half, but do not cut all the way through. Leave the bottom 1/2 inch to 1 inch attached. Do the same for the loaf length-wise, cutting about 1 inch apart.

3. Stuff veggies and cheese down the slits and coat the garlic butter on the top of the loaf. Bake for 20 minutes.