How to Roast Garlic

Craving the rich, nuanced, slightly sweet flavors of roasted garlic? It’s easy to make at home. Here’s how to roast garlic.

Roasting garlic takes patience but it pays off with the sweet, mellow, rich results.

The same can be said of people. Given the right nurturing and knowledge, people can become so many wonderful things. As a parent, it’s my job to try to provide that nurturing and knowledge — and a little pressure too — to transform my little humans into good, productive members of society. It’s the biggest of jobs, and so important too.

Beyond diamonds and children though, that miracle of nature — how something can transform under the right conditions — happens with food too. Like garlic.

Yes, garlic.

Raw garlic is pungent, spicy even and so sharp. It’s harsh, and not entirely pleasant on its own. But in foods — sauteed with veggies or marinara sauce, for instance, the harshness becomes an asset. It lends so much pleasant flavor to dishes. Aglio olio, where garlic is cooked in oil and then tossed with pasta, is pure comfort food.

But garlic still is the thing said to keep vampires away.

Unless, of course, you apply the right conditions for a transformation. When when you drizzle garlic with a little olive oil, wrap it in foil and roast it for a while, the magic happens.

In the oven, the harshness disappears and a whole new garlic emerges.

The firm, creamy white cloves soften and turn to a golden brown. The sharp, pungency mellows and transforms. In its place is a rich, slightly sweet garlic that’s soft enough to spread. It retains some of that garlic flavor — I mean, it’s still garlic — but it becomes something else. Something craveworthy. Something amazing.

Roasted garlic is good enough to be eaten alone, but versatile enough to elevate so many other dishes.

Try it, and see. The first time I made roasted garlic, I ended up eating the entire head spread on bread — it was that good.

Uses for Roasted Garlic:

• Flavor mashed potatoes with a sweet, rich flavor of roasted garlic.
• Whisk mashed roasted garlic into a vinaigrette to drizzle over boiled potatoes, salad, etc.
• Mash and spread on warm bread
• Use as a sandwich spread
• Mix with butter, spread on a baguette and bake for a delectable garlic bread
• Saute some greens and then toss with mashed roasted garlic and a little freshly grated parmesan cheese
• Toss with pasta. You can add some halved cherry tomatoes, sauteed greens or just a little cheese, salt and pepper (or all of these) for a delicious meal. Or make Roasted Garlic Fettuccine Alfredo.
• Mix into your favorite hummus or dip recipe