Cheesy Pesto Pull-Apart Bread

Ingredients

• 1 large bloomer or sourdough loaf
• 4 tbsp basil pesto
• 150 g mozzarella, torn
• 80 g cheddar, grated
• 50 g butter, melted
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• Tomato dipping sauce, to serve
• Dressed green salad, to serve
• Mixed olives, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan. Sit the loaf on a board and, using a serrated knife, cut a deep grid across the top — go almost to the base but not through it, so the loaf holds together as one piece.
2. Stir the crushed garlic into the melted butter with a good pinch of salt and a few twists of pepper. The garlic only cooks through inside the bread, so it needs to go in raw and finely crushed — any larger and it scorches against the crust before the cheese melts. Watch it in the oven; if the top starts going past pale gold too fast, cover loosely with foil. Burnt garlic turns the whole loaf bitter.
3. Brush the garlic butter generously into every cut, letting it soak down into the bread. Spoon the pesto into the cuts next, working it down with the back of the spoon so it reaches the base of each crevice — that's where the flavour lives once it bakes.
4. Stuff the torn mozzarella and grated cheddar into every gap until the loaf looks properly loaded. Taste a pinch of the cheddar against the pesto on your finger — if it needs another whisper of salt over the top, add it now. Season at the build, not at the table.
5. Wrap the loaf loosely in foil, set it on a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes — the foil traps steam so the cheese melts through the middle before the crust hardens. Open the foil out and bake for a further 10 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling in the cracks, the cheddar on top is deep golden, and the crust has crisped at the edges.
6. Slide the loaf onto a wooden board. Spoon the tomato dipping sauce into a bowl alongside, set the dressed green salad and mixed olives on the board, and serve straight away — pull apart by hand while the cheese still stretches between the pieces.