Creamy Garlic Bread Soup With No-Knead Ciabatta

This incredibly delicious soup is inspired both by Spanish garlic soup (sopa de ajo) and French onion soup — but given an Italian garlic bread spin. If the gooey, chewy, cheesy bread in French onion soup is your favorite part and you are a fellow garlic-lover, then this soup is for you!

Traditionally, sopa de ajo is broth cooked with chunks of bread, seasoned with lots of finely sliced garlic and paprika.

In this version, I used the method of making Spanish sopa de ajo, but with a change of ingredients.  This rich garlic soup is cooked with crusty homemade ciabatta bread, the buttery broth is enhanced with cream, seasoned generously with fresh Italian parsley, then topped with a blend of Italian cheeses. It is very reminiscent of cheesy French onion soup — but alllll garlic.

While homemade no-knead ciabatta must be started a full day ahead, it is absolutely effortless and hands-free. It takes only seconds to mix the ingredients with a fork, then the yeast does all the work. The result is quite spectacular for bread that requires so little effort and only time.  If you don’t have time to wait the hours for the yeast to do the work, you can opt for store-bought ciabatta and can enjoy this rich and creamy soup in a matter of minutes!

NO-KNEAD CIABATTA BREAD INGREDIENTS:

Yields 2 small 8" loaves, however you can increase or decrease the batch based on 80% hydration (100:80 flour-to-water ratio). For every 100 grams of flour and 80 mL of water, you can put 1/4 tsp yeast, 1/2 tbsp of olive oil and 1/2 a tsp of salt.

1-1/3 c warm water (320 mL)

1 tsp dry active yeast

2 tbsp olive oil

2-1/2 c bread flour (400 g)

2 tsp salt

CREAMY GARLIC BREAD SOUP INGREDIENTS:

Yields 6-8 servings:

1/2 c salted butter

1 head garlic

1 small loaf ciabatta bread, cubed

4 c chicken broth

1 c heavy cream

1/3 bunch parsley

Finely grated cheese; I used an Italian blend of parmesan, asiago, Romano, and provolone

OPTIONAL SPECIAL SUPPLIES:

Pizza stone

Pizza peel

Start the ciabatta approximately 18-20 hours before baking to allow for enough rise and flavor.

1. Sprinkle yeast over warm water in a large bowl. Mix with a fork until yeast is dissolved.

2. Add olive oil and mix.

3. Add flour and salt. Mix with a fork until combined, ensuring all of the flour on the sides are incorporated. It is a very sticky dough, but do not be tempted to add more flour.

4. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap.

Let rise undisturbed at room temperature for 18-20 hours.

1. After the dough has risen for 18-20 hours it's time to remove the bowl's cover, take a whiff of that glorious scent of fermentation, and ready the dough for baking without even getting your hands dirty!

2. Place a sheet of parchment paper on pizza peel and very generously dust with flour.

3. Scrape the dough onto the parchment paper.

4. Cut dough in half.

5. Pull and shape the dough into 2 loaves.

6. Generously dust the tops of the dough with flour and cover with plastic wrap.

7. Let rise for another hour. At about 30 minutes of rising, place the pizza stone on the 2nd bottom rack and a pan with an inch of water as a bain marie at the very bottom of the oven, and turn on the oven to 500F, which should take another 30 minutes to pre-heat. Ideally, a pizza stone should be used to bake the bread to ensure enough heat is retained while the bottom of the loaves don't over-brown. However, you can used double-stacked pans in its place.

8. When the oven has pre-heated, slide the dough along with parchment paper onto the pizza stone or pan. Bake for 20 minutes.

1. Chop the garlic into very fine slices as shown.

2. Chop the parsley leaves to yield about 1/3 cup, finely chopped.

1. Take one of the ciabatta loaves. Set aside the second loaf for serving or for another meal.

2. Slice the ciabatta loaf into 1-1/2" cubes.

3. Over medium heat, melt butter in a large saute pan.

4. Add garlic to melted butter and stir.

5. Once the edges of the garlic turn a pale golden color, add the ciabatta cubes.

6. Stir the bread until all of the butter is soaked up and the garlic slices turn to a golden color throughout. Do not burn the garlic.

It's time to turn this into soup!

1 Add chicken broth to the fried garlic and bread. Increase the heat to medium-high.

2 Once the broth starts to simmer, add heavy cream and mix.

3 Cover with lid, reduce the heat back to medium, and simmer for 5 minutes.

4 Add chopped parsley.

Top with as much grated cheese as you can enjoy and serve immediately.