Roasted garlic is super yummy, spreadable, and adaptable. Mix it with butter, mayo or cream cheese to spruce up those condiments. Slather it onto bread straight, or mix it into just about anything for a garlicy flavor that is less "sharp" than raw garlic. It's more mellow and not as spicy. Plus the olive oil you use to roast it becomes infused with a lovely garlic essence that's great to use in salad dressings or as dipping oil.
How to:
Simply cut the papery top (opposite of root side) with a sharp knife. You want to cut the top of each little clove in the bulb, just exposing the inner flesh without cutting off a ton of the meat - maybe a half inch at the most.
You can use muffin tins lined with foil, or just make little foil packets, or nestle several bulbs in an oven-safe dish and cover with foil. Place the bulb in the foil root side down, sprinkle with any seasonings you may like (salt, cayenne, basil, etc) and drizzle well with olive oil. It doesn't need to be submerged, but oil should get into all the crannies.
Roast for about 30 minutes at 450 degrees. At about 20 minutes in the delicious smell of garlic will be intense! Be careful when you open that packet - hot steam will come rushing out (along with some delicious garlic aromas). Allow garlic to cool some as you don't want to burn yourself on that hot oil, and easily squeeze the cloves out of their paper wrappers. Store in fridge whole, or squish out the cloves and discard the paper part (lick all that good oil off first).
Ta da, that's it. Don't burn your tongue, but eat at least one clove while it's still warm: soo devine.
What's your favorite way of using roasted garlic?
