How to Roast Garlic in Your Oven

Taken from the oven, roasted garlic is sweet.

Our depression-era parents grew up associating garlic with urban, working class families from the Old Country. By the start of World War II, garlic was catching on as a component of ethnic food and then when hungry GIs tasted it in Italy, they embraced it and, in a sense, brought it home to American cuisine.

Garlic has a fascinating history and when eaten raw on a regular basis, it's good for us. If you eat it raw on a regular basis, let me know how that's going for you.

Roasted garlic is available in a jars at the supermarket and we always have a jar in the refrigerator. But roasting it at home is much more fun than buying it in a jar. It's almost a little ritual, a sacrifice to the culinary gods.

Here's how you can roast garlic at home! Have: 

• Several large heads of garlic
• Olive oil (depends on how many heads you wish to roast)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Trim the bulb with a knife, cutting off the edges of the individual cloves. The outer skin of the bulb should remain in place. Drizzle with olive oil, using your hands to coat the bulb. Wrap in aluminum foil and pop in the oven for about 30 minutes. 

I have placed mine directly on the middle oven rack and used a baking sheet. Another good idea comes from Simply Recipes: Use a muffin tin for multiple garlic bulbs. Other cooks recommend placing the garlic in a small ramekin with water in the bottom, and covering with foil. Both methods will work.

When the individual cloves are hot, the garlic is done. You can tell by the wonderful aroma, too.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool, as the garlic will be very hot. Once cooled try eating the delicious creamy garlic that emerges from a squeezed clove. Incredible! 

Roosted garlic can be used in pasta dishes and most any dish with a Mediterranean influence. I have also used it with ginger in Chinese dishes.