How To Roast Garlic
For garlic lovers, roasted garlic is heaven, and learning how to roast garlic is not at all hard. The first thing you need, of course, is garlic, and if it is garlic you have grown yourself, all the better. Many people use roasted garlic on bread instead of butter to reduce their fat intake. But most people eat garlic bread and include garlic in all sorts of recipes just because it tastes so good.
Besides garlic, the only other thing that you need is aluminum foil. Some people buy terra cotta roasters, which work well and are safe to put in the microwave. There are even electric garlic roasters sold today but not many people just happen to have one at home. For all intents and purposes, aluminum foil is cost effective and works great.
So here, step by step, is how to roast garlic. Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Next, get your garlic bulb or bulbs (this works great in quantity too) and peel away the loose papery outer layers on the bulb, leaving the skins on the cloves and all of the cloves intact. Take a knife and cut off around one-fourth to one-third of the top off the bulb, which will allow you to see the top of the exposed garlic cloves.
Sprinkle some olive oil on the exposed cloves and add any herbs or spices you would like. Here is where you have a choice of what to use for the actual baking. You can cover the bulbs with aluminum foil and set them cut side up in a baking pan or dish (or even a muffin pan) and place them in the warm oven. Or, you can put them in the terra cotta roaster and place the roaster in the oven.
The baking time at 350 degrees is 30 to 35 minutes. The cloves themselves should feel soft. Then, let the garlic bulbs cool enough that you can hold them with your hands. You should remove the garlic cloves with a small knife or fork, or just by squeezing them out of the paper with your fingers. You can mash them up for cooking, such as on bread, potatoes or in pasta sauce.
For a savory treat, many people eat the whole garlic cloves by themselves when they are still warm. If this sounds a bit too strong for you, give it a try anyway. The garlic, after it has been roasted, no longer has the sharp taste of raw garlic, the kind that has other people smelling garlic every time you open your mouth. In fact, roasted garlic has an almost buttery sweetness, delicious but not as strong as eating a clove of raw garlic.
Now that you know how to roast garlic, you can make it all the time. Roasted garlic tastes great in just about any recipe. Some people make garlic bread or add it to mash potatoes or soups. It’s at home on pizzas and in all kinds of tomato sauces. It works nicely in a party dip. And, it gives just the right flavoring when added to hamburger, and even other roasted vegetables.