I prefer to use roasted garlic in dishes when I want a more mellow, slightly sweet garlic flavor. This is particularly true in those recipes that do not get cooked, such as, hummus, certain salad dressings and sauces.
Roasting garlic is super simple and can be used in various ways, such as, adding it to vegetables, mashed potatoes, your favorite pizza or foccacia. Try mixing it into mayonnaise for a spread to smear on sandwiches.
When we lived in the Bay Area of California, Gilroy, known as the “Garlic Capital of the World,” was less than an hour away. Every year the town held a small garlic festival that has turned into THE food fair of the summer with entertainment, cooking contests, food demonstrations and garlicky foods galore. One has the opportunity to taste everything from garlic fries and bread, garlic-laced calamari and pasta, to the infamous only-in-Gilroy, “garlic ice-cream”
Ingredients:
- Whole head (s) of garlic
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Slice about 1/4-inch off the top of the garlic head to expose the cloves and place on a piece of foil.
- Drizzle olive oil on the top of the garlic, letting it drip down the sides. Wrap the foil completely around the garlic.
- Place the foil-wrapped garlic on a baking sheet and bake in a 400* oven for 45 minutes.
- Let cool to the touch and then simply squeeze out the garlic from each clove.
