garlic roasted with olive oil

This would be a blue ribbon contender on the easy-as-pie poster, it doesn’t get more simple than this – you got ‘yer garlic and you got ‘yer heat – garlic & heat. That’s it. Sure we add a little drizzle of olive oil, salt & pepper, that’s a given – most things I eat get a hit of olive oil, salt & pepper.

Break up a few heads into cloves with their papery shirts intact, drizzle, sprinkle, tuck them in and off to the oven they go. Something magical happens to garlic when it is tucked into tin foil like Goldilocks under an electric blanket in baby bear’s bed, all snuggly and warm. After a nap in the oven, garlic emerges all golden and soft and buttery and sweet, unlike the disgruntled bears who scare the bejeezus out of one golden-haired little girl!

And a word about the method – unlike most recipes you’ll find on roasting garlic, I can’t bring myself to cut off the top 1/4 – all I see is the eventual soft, buttery, sweet garlic going out with the trash – NOOOOOOOOOOO – simply can’t bring myself to do it. I’ve roasted many a head of garlic, and bypassing this off-with-their-heads-like-it’s-the-Royal-Court thing has yet to doom my stash – so I’ve never decapitated my heads, and I’ve never been sorry. I do give them a good rub with the olive oil, salt & pepper which loosens their shirts slightly, which is probably accomplishing the same thing as the decapitation, but much more humane. So there you have it, roasted garlic to enjoy anywhere you please – I’ve been known to eat the cloves one by one until somebody yells “Hey, garlic girl – you comin’ up for air anytime soon!” So here’s to takin’ a deep breath and divin’ in to the most delicious packet of creamy golden nuggets known to man – thank you Mama Nature!

click here to jump down to the garlic roasted with olive oil recipe

1. Gather as many heads of garlic as you like – frankly, there’s no such thing as too many!

2. Break them into cloves (paper skins intact) on a piece of foil. Or for gadget hounds – an electric garlic roaster!

3. Drizzle with olive oil, salt & pepper and give ’em a good rub down to coat thoroughly. If a few shirts loosen, well that’s bound to happen and it’s part of the magic!

4. Wrap up the edges of the tin foil into a neat little package.

5. Goodnight Goldilocks!

6. Morning!

7. Oh Lord!

8. Lordy, lordy lordy …

9. Come to Mama! One of many, many, many ways to use your buttery bliss! Get your roasted garlic groove on below!

Preheat the oven to 350°.

1. On a piece of tin foil, break up the following into cloves, leaving their paper skins intact:

as many heads of garlic as you like
a generous sprinkle of salt
same of cracked black pepper
a good glug of olive oil

2. Get in there with your hands and rub the cloves until they are fully coated. Wrap them up to seal and put it in your preheated oven for 50-60 minutes. Nirvana!