Hope everyone had a great weekend! I was off of work last Friday so I decided to take advantage and make a romantic dinner to be ready when Adam got home from work (it is VERY rare that I have dinner waiting for him)! We had a great pasta dish, which I’ll be sharing later this week, and I wanted something extra special on the side.
Adam & I love Carrabba’s…our favorite thing is their dipping spices for the bread!! So amazing! This recipe is pretty close to it. I had to sub a few things because basil isn’t readily available here except in those little packs that are way expensive, so I subbed with an additional tbsp. of fresh parsley and added just a tad of dried basil. If you do use fresh basil just half the amount of parsley listed below. This was really fabulous and it made for a really elegant pairing with our pasta for a romantic dinner.
I do have to admit our romantic dinner was eaten on TV trays watching DVR’d episodes of CSI…our favorite way to spend an evening! Do you eat on TV trays or at the table, or a combination of both? We mostly eat on trays in front of the TV…we really communicate a lot throughout the day so we don’t mind unwinding at dinner in front of the TV for now.
Carrabba’s Bread Dipping Spices
Source: www.recipelink.com
Makes 1/4 cup
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. dried basil (or 1 tbsp. fresh-if using fresh reduce parsley to 1 tbsp.)
1/8 tsp. dried rosemary (or 1/2 tsp. fresh)
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/8 tsp. ground red pepper (or 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes)
1/2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/8 tsp. fresh lemon juice
Directions:
Place all ingredients except olive oil & lemon in a blender or food processor and chop until all ingredients are similar in size. Stir in the olive oil & lemon juice.
For Serving:
In a small dish, place 1 1/2 tsp. spice mixture. Pour 3-4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil over top of the spice mixture. Serve with french bread for dipping.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Yum, I love the dipping sauces from them, too. Shamefully Eric and I always eat in front of the tv – the dining table is there when we have company over, we unwind with our dvr'd shows (we realized we hadn't watched 3 episodes of America's Next Great Restaurant and we're still missing 5 episodes of No Ordinary Family!). Ugh, we're so behind on tv.
This looks fantastic, although this might be a meal all by itself, too!!! hehe
Yeah! So glad to know we aren't alone in eating in front of the tv:)
L.O.V.E. this! our favorite resturant is carrabbas too! thanks for posting!!!
The recipe looks great! We never ate at the table until we had kids.
When they're all out of the house, I'm sure we'll go back to eating in front of the TV!
Hey! I just found your site and love it! Your strawberry poptarts look so yum. My hubby and I love Carrabbas too and are especially attached to the bread dip.
I just wrote about this on my blog today, mentioned your link, and used your awesome pic (with you credited, of course!) 
Hope you get some traffic from it! 
Christa, Thank you so much and thank you for the link love! I appreciate it!!:)
Hi, I came across this and got excited cause I work at a Carrabba’s. It makes me happy to hear people say its their favorite restaurant. Here is the actual recipe: fresh rosemary, fresh basil, fresh parsley, fresh garlic, dried oregano, granulated garlic, crushed red pepper, cracked black pepper and kosher salt. As far as the amount of each ingredients? They will never tell!
I love carrabba’s! Thanks for sharing the actual ingredients!:)
AHHH! I just found this on pinterest…. can I tell you how excited I am to have found this recipe and your blog.
Thank you so much!:) I really appreciate it! So excited to know it was on pinterest!:) that makes my day!
We love carrabba’s! Can’t wait to try this, it’s so unfair to go there wanting to eat the entree but then they bring you the bread and this dipping stuff, and you fill up!
I know! I can eat an entire basket of the bread myself if I’m not careful!:)
I work there and there is no thyme in the recipe
Ill second the “I work there” comment…well I used to. The recipe Is pretty easy. It’s got no thyme. And no lemon juice.
Parsley
Rosemary
Oregano
Basil
Crushed red pepper
Black pepper
Garlic (fresh and granulated)
Kosher salt
Then just put that on a plate and swirl it around in EXTRA VIRGIN olive oil.
Thanks for sharing this!
Basil is super easy to grow and then just freeze the leaves so you can have it whenever you want some
My goal is to plant some fresh herbs this year! I always say I’m going to and then I never do. Great idea to freeze the leaves too!
I made this dipping spice recipe one night when we were having spaghetti and it was a huge hit! My husband RAVED about it and said we’re making it from now on every time we have Italian food LOL.
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