Have you ever had the 5 cheese baked cheese fonduta appetizer at Olive Garden?  It is A.MAZ.ING. The most delicious blend of cheeses melted together, topped with fresh tomatoes and parsley, and then served with crispy crostini bread.  My daughter and I always indulge in this appetizer when we go there and I recently introduced my hubby to it one night when we were out to dinner and he was hooked!  Truly scrumptious.

I decided we needed to recreate this ooey gooey melty cheese dip deliciousness at home and had a ton of cheeses in my refrigerator so we mixed them up together, seasoned it all up with our favorite Italian seasonings and added some sour cream to bind it.  All I can say is wow… this is an appetizer that I will be making for years to come.  This is a show stopper!

My favorite thing to serve with this appetizer is a baguette that has been sliced in half inch slices on a slight diagonal.  I place them on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and then broil for 2-3 minutes or just starting to brown.  HEAVENLY!

A couple of tips for this recipe:

• You can try out different cheeses, but make sure you use the two cups of mozzarella as that will give it the gooey factory you need.  
• When it comes to shredded mozzarella, there is only one I use now and that is Kraft Creamy Melt Mozzarella with a touch of Philadelphia cream cheese.  This stuff is amazingly melty and delicious.  It makes all the difference in any of the recipes I use shredded mozzarella in.
• If you like an extra little kick, add some extra red pepper flakes.
• When you initially mix the ingredients together, you may think it is too dry – it’s not!  Keep mixing and pressing the mixture in to each other until it’s well combined, then spread in to the greased pie dish.
• A glass pie dish works best for this dip!
• I generally serve this with the tomatoes and parsley on the side for people to add as they want in case people don’t like tomatoes, (like my boys!)  

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 cup shredded Italian cheese blend
• 1 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

• 1 chopped tomato & chopped fresh parsley for garnish
• A loaf of your favorite crusty bread

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Spray a glass pie pan with non-stick cooking spray.  
2. In a large bowl, combine the sour cream, Italian seasoning, dried parsley and red pepper flakes
3. Add in all the cheeses and mix until well combined
4. Spread the mixture in the prepared glass pie pan
5. Bake for 15 minutes, then switch to broil and broil for 2-3 minutes or until nice and bubby and starting to lightly brown on the top  (Keep an eye on it while broiling so you don’t burn it. I use the low broil setting on my oven.)  
6. Serve as soon as it comes out of the oven, piping hot. 
7. If desired, garnish with a pile of fresh tomato in the middle, (I like Campari best), and sprinkle chopped fresh parsley all over the top. (Otherwise serve tomato and parsley on the side for your guests to add.