My first exposure to the delights of sweetly fragrant, buttery soft roasted garlic was sometime in the late 90s, at a roadhouse somewhere north of Tahoe. At first I thought the menu was misprinted. Garlic cloves on toast? Wouldn't that kill a normal adult? Or worse, result in social banishment for weeks?
Of course I ordered the dish, then wheedled the recipe and method from the manager.
There wasn't much to wheedle. Choosing a large firm head of garlic is half the secret. Remove most of the dry outer skins, then slice off enough of the top (the pointy end) so cut surfaces of most of the cloves are exposed.
Put this in a little crock (don't get crocked yourself until you put the knife away,) drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Cover tightly (aluminum foil is fine because it won't touch the food) and bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. The pictured garlic took 40 minutes because the inner cloves are huge. We're aiming for soft cloves, but if they turn mushy, we'll call them "spreadable."
Spread roasted garlic on just about anything savory where you'd spread butter: toast, crackers, roasted veggies, cornbread, hamburgers, steak and baked potatoes. It goes places you wouldn't put butter, like on pizza, and if you like to play with your food, this isn't as greasy as butter - anywhere. Leftovers? Pop the cloves out of their skins into a jar of olive oil and keep it in the refrigerator for pastas, polenta and mashed potatoes.
copyright Starr Luteri 2009
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