Bravo Cucina bread dipping oil

My daughters and I really like the bread dipping oil served at Bravo Cucina Italiano, a restaurant chain in the Pittsburgh area.   There a several "copy cat" recipes on the internet, but I think those recipes are much too light on the tomato taste that is characteristic of the Bravo oil.  After a couple tries, I think this tastes a lot like Bravo's, or even if it isn't, it is pretty damn good:

1/2 c. olive oil
   2 t.  sun-dried tomato paste
1/2 t.  dried basil
1/2 t.  dried thyme
1/2 t.  dried rosemary
1/4 t.  very finely minced garlic or garlic powder
salt (very little)
pepper

Whisk sun-dried tomato paste and oil in a bowl.  Add basil, thyme and rosemary crushing them very finely with your fingers.  Whisk.  Add garlic and salt and pepper.  If possible, let it all blend for a couple hours before using.  Delicious.

Among the possibilities

I have been studying and trying vinaigrette recipes and combinations over the last several weeks.  Dried or fresh herbs can be used, but I suggest you make sure they are very finely chopped to really spread the flavor.  To me it is at least as much about the aroma of the herbs as the taste.  And I love the smell of fresh basil.

I recently tried a basil vinaigrette that also included a large quantity of parsley (1/2 c. each fresh basil and parsley, 1 c. olive oil, 1/2 c. red wine vinegar, garlic and mustard).  Note that the oil/vinegar ratio is different from a more standard vinaigrette.  I thought that might be a problem, that it would taste too vinegar-y, but that was fine.  But the volume of basil and parsley was so much that it was very dense.  Despite my own advice, I think I should have chopped the basil more finely.  It was heavy and overwhelming to the lettuce, but it was delicious with bread.  Much more robust than a normal dipping oil, of course, but it tasted great.

I am going to explore some dipping oil combinations over the next few weeks, so if you are interested, look for something in future posts.