Because I love cooking so much, I tend to haunt various grocery stores – hunting out those small specialty shops, and searching for unique ingredients to play with. Every so often, I find one of those specialty grocery stores with a prepared food counter – and have on more than one occasion seen Roasted Garlic for sale in said counter, and I have to say – I’m boggled that anyone would buy roasted garlic. Especially at those prices… ($14.99 a pound, anyone?)

So every so often I make a few heads of garlic up, and use them in various recipes. If you’ve never had roasted garlic, it’s flavor is a little mellower than fresh garlic, and just a teeny bit sweeter. It’s excellent as a quick way to punch up a sauce or vinegarette, or if you really love the garlic, just spread it over a piece of bread instead of butter.

Ingredients:

• 1 full head of garlic
• Olive Oil

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°
• Cut the top of the head of garlic off, just enough to expose the top of each clove
• Drizzle Olive Oil into the garlic, allowing the oil to seep down in between the individual cloves
• Wrap the garlic in a piece of aluminum foil
• Bake for 1 hour
• To use, simply squeeze the now soft and carmelized garlic out of the paper shell
• If desired, puree roasted garlic to form a soft spread
• Use immediately or store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks