I made Ina Garten's 'outrageous' garlic bread, and now it's my favorite easy side dish

To make Garten's "outrageous" garlic bread, you'll need:

• 1 (20 to 24-inch-long) crusty French baguette
• 1 head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
• 1 cup of freshly grated Italian Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons of fresh parsley, minced
• 2 tablespoons of grated lemon zest
• ¼ teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes
• 12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) of unsalted butter

The first step is melting the butter in a small saucepan over low heat.

Before adding garlic to the pan, you'll need to separate and peel the cloves from one head.

It sounds like a lot of prep, but, as always, Garten has some handy tips.

"Peel the garlic by smashing each clove lightly on a board with a chef's knife," she writes in her cookbook. "Or place the cloves in a small pot of boiling water for 15 to 30 seconds, and the peels will come right off."

I went with the first technique and then added my cloves to the saucepan, coating them with the melted butter. Then, I covered the pan for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally per Garten's instructions.

The cloves were tender and ready to go. I transferred them to a small bowl, which Garten recommends setting aside until it's cool enough to handle.

Garten's recipe calls for slicing the baguette in half lengthwise. She then recommends placing both halves, cut sides up, on a cutting board.

Then, it gets a little tricky. The recipe calls for you to score the halves diagonally (meaning you don't cut them all the way through) in large serving-size pieces.

My friend Zach, who was acting as my sous chef for the night, had a great tip. He placed chopsticks on each side of the baguette halves while scoring so the knife wouldn't completely slice through the bread.

It was here that Zach and I read the recipe a bit wrong. Instead of fully mashing the garlic into the butter, we put the tender cloves straight on the bread. Thankfully, our error ended up being a huge hit (more on that in a bit).

After spooning the cloves onto the bread, it was time to create the delicious mixture that would cover our baguette. We added two teaspoons of grated lemon zest, ¼ teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes, and some salt and freshly ground black pepper into the saucepan with the butter.

We stirred everything together and generously brushed the mixture over the bread. It already smelled incredible.

We topped the baguette halves with one cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, some minced fresh parsley, and more red pepper flakes — which gave the bread a great burst of color (and a nice kick).

Then, per Garten's instructions, we cut the bread halves along a score to fit four pieces on a sheet pan and threw them into the oven, which was set at 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pro tip: Garten says you can also prepare your garlic mixture up to three days in advance and refrigerate it. Just combine everything in a bowl, including the Parmesan cheese and parsley, and warm it slightly in a microwave to make the mixture spreadable when you're ready to bake your bread.

Garten recommends baking your bread for five to seven minutes, until the "topping is bubbly and starting to brown and the bread is crisp."

Once it was out of the oven, I transferred the bread to a board and cut along the scores to make serving pieces, topping everything off with sea salt.

The garlic bread was a huge hit at the dinner table. Each piece was perfectly crunchy, and the lemon zest and parsley added a nice brightness to all that garlic. Zach and I agreed it was worth the extra cooking time and effort.

"I could have eaten an entire baguette's worth of the garlic bread," my friend Tyler added. "I liked the whole garlic cloves and the lemon zest was delicious."

My friend Sara also loved the full slices of garlic rather than seeing it chopped or minced and said it was her favorite part of the dish.

Whether you're craving Garten's comforting weeknight Bolognese or her beautiful penne alla vodka, this recipe is an easy and delicious side dish that will please everyone.

Garten's "outrageous" garlic bread lives up to its name in the best way. I know I'll be making it for dinner parties for years to come.