Roasted Garlic

Roasting garlic mellows it and brings out its subtle nutty flavor.

There are a lot of techniques for roasting garlic, here is one of them.

 Ingredients

Whole heads of fresh Garlic (however many you want to prepare)

Olive oil

Thyme (or rosemary, oregano, whatever you like. Fresh is best, but dried will do)

A small covered oven proof dish or aluminum foil for baking

Small amount of butter (optional)

Salt and pepper (if desired)

Directions 

Carefully remove some of the outer papery skin, taking care not to remove too much. You want the heads to stay intact and not separate into cloves.

With a sharp knife, slice off the tops of the garlic heads. This removes the tips of the cloves which allows for the steam to escape while roasting. This also allows for the olive oil and spices to drip down inside the heads to season them.

Place the garlic heads in a roasting pan (or aluminum foil). Slowly drizzle a small about of olive oil over each head of garlic (about 1/2-1 teaspoon each).

Sprinkle with your herb of choice.

Cover. Place in a cold oven and turn the temperature to 300 degrees. Bake for one hour.

Remove from oven, uncover and dot with a small amount of butter (if desired), salt and pepper (also optional).

Place the heads back in the oven, uncovered, for another 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool until cool enough so that you can handle them.

At this point you can either separate the cloves by breaking the heads in half and squeezing the garlic out. For this method, grab each clove from the bottom of the head and gently squeeze. Or, use a small fork to lift each clove out gently. Place the roasted cloves in a small bowl.

Add a small amount of olive oil and smash the cloves with a fork, if desired.

Use the roasted cloves in your favorite dish or spread them on a hunk of warm crusty french bread.

I take the garlic heads that I'm not planning on using right away, and put them in a plastic container. Drizzle them with olive oil. Refrigerate until ready to use (for up to 3-4 days).