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Italian Compound Butter

Name: Italian Compound Butter
Prep time: 7 min
Total time: 7 min
Ingredients: 8 tbsp unsalted butter (at room temperature [or salted, see note]); 2 tbsp finely-diced sun-dried tomatoes, (drained and blotted dry); 2 tbsp finely-diced fresh basil; 4 cloves pressed or finely-minced garlic (about 2 teaspoons); 1/2 tsp salt; 1/4 tsp freshly-cracked black pepper (or to taste)

May 19, 2015 · 32 Comments

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This Italian compound butter is packed with garlic, fresh basil, and sun-dried tomatoes for an easy, flavor-filled spin on garlic butter.

Bread and butter will forever be one of my favorite appetizer/pre-dinner eats. I can do serious damage to a bread basket at a restaurant! And while I’ll never say no to plain butter, flavored or compound butter takes the whole deal to the next level.

Garlic butter is a classic on the savory side, while honey butter cleans up on the sweet side. I like to add cinnamon to my honey butter, which you can see in action in these cinnamon raisin biscuits.

But this post is all about savory. Garlic butter gets an upgrade with even more Italian-inspired flavors, including fresh basil and sun-dried tomatoes. Lots of flavor here!

Recipe ingredients

This Italian butter uses VERY simple ingredients with some wiggle room built in. I tend to have more unsalted butter sticks on hand than salted, so that’s what I use to make this butter. You can definitely use salted butter if you prefer. Just omit the additional salt added to the recipe.

My pick for the sun-dried tomatoes is the kind that comes packed in oil as they are perfectly moist and bring a ton of flavor right out of the jar. Just be sure to blot them well before dicing them and mixing them into this recipe.

Next comes fresh basil, also diced finely. Is there any better flavor? The butter mixture helps the basil retain its green coloring for days, so this recipe can be made ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator.

What’s left to add is four pressed cloves of garlic, a little ground black pepper, and salt, if not using salted butter. This compound butter is definitely on the bold side as far as flavor goes, so feel free to take it easy on any of the ingredients if you’re not a super big fan of garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, etc.

Easy recipe steps

Start by taking your butter out of the refrigerator to soften completely to room temperature. This makes it the easiest for mixing the other ingredients into it.

Once that’s done, blot and dice the sun-dried tomatoes, press the garlic, dice the basil, and measure out the pepper and salt, if using. Then combine everything by stirring very well or using an electric hand/stand mixer until all of the ingredients are evenly incorporated.

At this point you can transfer the Italian butter to a container and refrigerate, or you can form it into rolls for slicing later on. It just depends on your preference! I’ve included photos in this post of both ways.

Shaping the butter

To form a compound butter log, transfer it to a sheet of parchment paper and wrap the parchment paper around the butter to form it into a cylinder. Continue to wrap the butter log with the parchment, and then snugly wrap everything with plastic wrap. You can store the butter this way in the refrigerator OR in the freezer.

Related recipes

Sun-dried tomatoes shine in this artichoke and sun-dried tomato pesto recipe! While traditional basil will always be my #1 favorite, it’s always nice to switch things up occasionally, you know?

Speaking of, this creamy pesto gnocchi combines so many delicious flavors all in a sub-30 minute dinner recipe. Perfect for weeknights! Cannellini beans and Italian sausage help give this one extra heft.

Recipe notes

If not serving this Italian compound butter to a crowd, I like portion it out into three smaller logs and freeze them. That way I can pull out a little at a time.
Salted butter can be used, just omit the additional salt from the recipe.

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4 from 3 votes