Roasted Garlic

Garlic lovers rejoice!  Alone this is hardly a recipe.  However, it could be if you love roasted garlic enough to spread it on toast, as I do occasionally.  But if your zeal for roasted garlic stops short of eating it directly on toast then, I would suggest you make this as an add-on for other recipes.  Imagine making your favorite mashed potatoes then, adding in a few cloves of roasted garlic. How about a creamy batch of hummus spiked with a clove or two of these soft, golden nuggets?  You could easily make roasted garlic butter by whipping a head of roasted garlic with a stick or two of butter.  And imagine the garlic bread that you could make from that roasted garlic butter!  Sounds pretty good, right?

If you only want to roast a single head of garlic you can do so by roasting it along side a roasted chicken or on a sheet pan of roasted vegetables, wrapped in foil with a teaspoon of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt.  Or you can follow the instructions below to roast multiple heads of garlic at once. You can refrigerate the garlic to use throughout the week or squeeze them out of their cloves and freeze them.  The garlic comes out caramelized, slightly sweet and velvety soft.

Roasted Garlic

• 4 bulbs garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
•  sea salt for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Using a sharp knife carefully cut off about ½ inch from the pointed end of each garlic bulb, exposing the flesh from each of the individual cloves. Place the bulbs of garlic, flesh side up, in small baking dish.  Depending on the size and how much garlic is left in the “tops” you can add them to the pan.
3. Drizzle the bulbs of garlic with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
4. Tightly cover the pan with aluminum foil and roast in the oven for 40-45 minutes.  The cloves should be browned, soft and easily squeezed out of their skins.
5. Use as needed in a recipe.  Can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Discard any burned pieces of garlic.