Make Your Own Roasted Garlic

Many people love the pungent flavor and smell of garlic. This unique bulb adds flavor to many dishes and is a staple ingredient in many Italian dishes. Unfortunately, many of us end up buying that huge mesh bag filled with the fragrant white bulb, but are not sure to use them all up before they spoil. The answer is simply roasting the garlic, which will help use up all that extra garlic and avoid having to throw it out due to it going bad.

Roasting garlic is a simple process. All you need is about ten cloves of garlic, ¼ cup of olive oil and some salt and pepper. The first step is to preheat the oven to 400°F, and make sure that the oven rack is positioned in the center of the oven. This will help to ensure even roasting of the bulbs.

Next, slice about half of the top of the head off of each bulb of garlic. Then arrange all the garlic bulbs cut side up on a large cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. By lining the baking sheet with aluminum foil will make for easy clean up later. Drizzle about 3 tablespoons of the olive oil over all of the bulbs of garlic.

By drizzling the olive oil first will help the salt and pepper to adhere more evenly to the garlic. Sprinkle the garlic with the salt and pepper, and after the garlic is oiled and seasoned to taste, take the aluminum foil and wrap around the garlic bulbs making a tight packet. The clove should roast for about 1 to 1 ½ hours in the oven or until the garlic is a light golden brown in color and very soft when poked with a fork.

After the garlic has completed the roasting process take the cloves out of the aluminum foil packet and allow them to cool at room temperature. Once the garlic has cooled, it is time to remove the cloves from the head, which is a simple process. First grab the bulb and squeeze the bottom part gently. This will help the cloves of garlic pop out of the bulb.

Place the roasted cloves and place them in a bowl, take the remaining olive oil about 1 tablespoon and add to the bowl of roasted garlic cloves. Using a fork, mash up and mix the roasted garlic and olive oil together until evenly blended. Roasted garlic can then be stored in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks and for approximately one month in the freezer.

When garlic is roasted, the cloves of the bulb start to mellow and sweeten the flavor when compared to raw garlic. By roasting the garlic, it will add a silky buttery texture to the clove, which will be a perfect compliment in a tomato sauce or even a simple pasta