Garlic Bread Pasta Timpano
A big loaf of garlic bread stuffed with pasta, meatballs, sausage, and cheese, like an individual sized timpano! This one is for garlic bread fanatics! Garlic bread is one of the greatest foods of all time, so I wanted to create a whole dish where it was the star! I am sick of seeing garlic bread regulated to side dish or appetizer territory. It’s time for garlic bread to rise up to its’s rightful place!!
The inspiration for this recipe
I have been doing a lot of housekeeping on my website and I came across a timpano recipe. I remembered I used to do timpano related stuff all the time and it really got me thinking about new ideas to do with it. This garlic bread idea came to me and I wasn’t sure how it would go. The whole time I was making it I was even pretty sceptical! I thought there would be too much bread or the texture would be weird or the whole thing would fall apart. In the end the garlic bread pasta timpano came out fantastic!!!
Prep all the timpano fillings
I made my own meatballs for this but you could use store bought! This is my meatball recipe, but It’s a very old blog post so beware! I hope to update it soon.
You could also use store bought sauce if you wanted. Or use your favorite or family recipe. I like this one if you don’t want a meat sauce. The one I used for this recipe was pretty close to this one. Keep the pasta fairly dry at this point so the pasta doesn’t soak through the garlic bread timpano while baking. We will have plenty of sauce on the plate.
Prepare the garlic bread timpano
I used 20 oz oven safe bowls for this. brush butter all around the bowl. Depending on the size and shape of your bowl, this step will be a little different for you and you are going to have to figure it out! I used 3 pieces of bread to form the bottom of the bowl and tried my best to really press the bread in so it wouldn’t be too thick. I added half the provolone next.
Next add the pasta, meatballs, and sausage. Really stuff the pasta in there! Then more provolone and the top bread. Try your best to tuck the bread in and make sure it is making contact with all bread and there isnt pasta blocking it. Brush more butter on where the bread was touching. I was very worried at this point and thought it wasn’t going to work out. I also considered mixing some egg into the butter to help things seal. In the end it all worked out fine!
Bake the garlic bread pasta timpano
Bake these at 400 for 30 minutes. Then flip them out of the containers. I thought I was going to have to use a knife to loosen them up but they actually popped right out!
The garlic butter mixture
Melt some butter with grated fresh garlic, garlic powder, onion powder, italian herbs, and chili flakes. I like to use Korean chili flakes cause they are more visually appealing and you can use a bit more without it being too spicy. You can use whichever chili flakes you have! Brush the garlic butter mixture onto the pasta timpano and bake it again, at 450 this time, for 15 more minutes.
Serving the garlic bread pasta timpano
Put a bunch more sauce on the plate and pop the garlic bread pasta timpano right in the middle! So good!
Slicing into it is a special moment.
When you find all the meatballs and sausages it’s like you won the scavenger hunt! Sopping up the sauce with that crispy garlic bread is like garlic bread heaven.
Twists on this recipe
I mentioned store bought vs homemade but I want to stress that you should make this your own. Use your favorite recipes or products! If you want to fill this with chicken parm, be my guest!
Garlic Bread Pasta Timpano
Equipment
Ingredients
- 8 ounces mini penne
- 1 quart tomato sauce
- 8 meatballs cooked
- 2 spicy italian sausages cooked
- 2 loafs sliced sourdough about 16 large slices
- 16 slices provolone cheese
- 4 tablespoons butter
Butter mixture
- 1 stick butter
- 4 cloves garlic grated
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon chili flake
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in salted boiling water to package instructions until al dente. Strain and toss with about 1/3 of the tomato sauce. You want it to be somewhat on the dryer side.
- Slice the sausages into small half moons. You can also cut the meatballs a little if you want, but I didn't.
- Preheat the oven to 400
- Brush 4 oven safe bowls with butter. Press three slices of bread into the bowl to form a bread bowl. Add 2 slices of cheese. Add in some pasta and the meatballs and sausage. Add more cheese on top. Press the pasta in as best as you can and overstuff it with pasta to help the bread get thin on the bottom and the bread to pasta ratio be better.
- Brush more butter on the edges and press a 4th slice of bread on top. Try your best to tuck it in with the other bread. I was very unsure as I was doing this and thought it was not going to work, but it actually stuck and sealed very well. Brush a little more butter on top
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- While it is baking, make the butter mixture by melting the butter and mixing all the ingredients into the butter.
- Remove the timpanos from the oven and turn the oven to 450.
- One by one, flip the timpano out of the bowl so they are free standing on the baking sheet. Brush them liberally with the butter mixture all around.
- Bake 15 minutes
- Split the remaining tomato sauce among 4 plates. Serve the garlic bread timpanos on top of the sauce.