Roasted garlic makes a great bread spread, especially on French bread. You can use it in mashed potatoes, use it as part of a sauce, or just give anything a sweet roasted garlic flavor. The best part, though, is that it's easy!
To roast a whole head of garlic, do the following:
- Preheat an oven to 400F.
- Peel away the outer layers of a head of garlic, but leave the skins of the cloves intact.
- Cut off about 1/4 inch of the cloves, exposing the individual clove surface.
- Place the head of garlic in the middle of some aluminum foil, exposed side up, and fold the edges upward to make sort of a bowl
- Drizzle about 3 or 4 tablespoons of olive oil on the cloves, and close the top of the foil bowl. Ensure that the cloves are coated well.
- Bake at 400F for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until the cloves are very soft.
You can also roast peeled cloves without them being attached to the head. The procedure is basically the same, with adjustments being made to the cooking time and amount of olive oil used, depending on how may cloves you are roasting.