Roasted Garlic

Garlic. Olive oil. Aluminum foil. 400 degree oven. Magic.
Roasted garlic is great because it gets really sweet and delicious but it loses a lot of its pungency so it's a milder flavor for those people who don't like garlic (honestly, I don't trust people who don't like garlic!). Plus, you don't have to worry (as much) about your breath.

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut off the top 1/2" of a head of garlic, or however much is enough to expose the cloves.
3. Drizzle on a good amount of good olive oil over the cloves.
4. Wrap the garlic up in foil and place on a sheet pan.
5. Put the garlic in the oven and let it roast for 25 minutes.

The garlic is ready when you can stick a knife in and pull out a clove easily. And remember, the leftover oil in the foil is full of garlic flavor too so you can add it to dressings, use it to saute vegetables in, or spread it on some toast.

Hold the bulb at the base and squeeze and all of the cloves will fall out.

Store the bulbs in an airtight container in the fridge and use within 1 week (if it even lasts that long).

What can you do with roasted garlic? Here's a list of 20 things to do with roasted garlic:

1. Spread it on bread in lieu of butter (and make a sandwich) - roasted garlic bread
2. OR mix it into bread dough - roasted garlic bread
3. Add it to mashed potatoes - roasted garlic mashed potatoes
4. Add it to a baked potato in lieu of butter - roasted garlic baked potatoes
5. Mash it up and add it to butter (which would be great on bread, popcorn, toasted nuts, vegetables) - garlic compound butter
6. Add it to tossed pasta - roasted garlic pasta
7. Mash it up and add it to sour cream and/or cream cheese - roasted garlic chip dip
8. Mash it up and spread it on pizza crust before topping it with sauce and cheese - roasted garlic pizza
9. Add it to sauteed/roasted vegetables - roasted garlic kale/spinach/broccolini/zucchini/mustard greens/broccoli rabe/potatoes/peppers/green beans/eggplant/mushrooms/carrots, you get the picture
10. Mash it up with lemon juice, olive oil, and a little salt and pepper - roasted garlic salad dressing
11. Rub it on a chicken before you roast it - roasted garlic roast chicken
12. Add it to soup - _____ soup with roasted garlic
13. Add it to salsa - roasted garlic salsa
14. Pulse it in a food processor with some chickpeas, olive oil, salt and pepper - roasted garlic hummus
15. Add it to ground beef along with diced onions, parsley, salt, pepper, egg, parmesan cheese, and stale bread - roasted garlic meatballs OR roasted garlic stuffed meatballs
16. Add it to the pot of rice before you cook it - roasted garlic rice pilaf
17. Pulse it together in a food processor with some caramelized onions - roasted garlic jelly
18. Add it to a bottle of olive oil - roasted garlic infused olive oil
19. Mash it up with some roasted tomatoes and basil - amazing roasted garlic tomato sauce
20. Eat them as is!

Here's an example of #8, adding roasted garlic to sauteed vegetables. I mashed up a bunch of cloves and tossed it with a big pile of roasted potatoes and parsley.

And here's an example of #5, adding roasted garlic to tossed pastas. I made gemelli and tossed it with roasted yellow peppers, sliced tenderloin, parsley, grated parmesan cheese, and of course, whole garlic cloves.