What may not be exiciting news to most of you is duper thrilling to us: two full days of wet, slippery rain. Yesterday and today brought big clouds with plenty of water to dump on our thirsty garden and our dirty cars. The weather is cooling off to a whopping 60 degrees during the day and for most native So Cal folks, this is ffrrreeezzzing!
We take advantage of every seasonal change and even if it drops to a chilly 60 degrees in our area, we’re pulling out the warm fuzzy blankets and cranking up the oven for some warm, roasted food to satisfy the soul.
It’s roasted garlic season for us, an amazingly simple dish that needs only four ingredients, some oven love and dinner is served. Roasted garlic is versatile in so many ways. Simply spread on some crusty bread is a meal in itself, but taking the roasted garlic pieces into stews, sauces and dressing makes for more remarkable soul food. One clove of roasted garlic can easily add tons of flavor to a dish that needs that little extra kick! The left over oil makes an remarkable dressing, so make sure you save every bit of this oil.
Best yet, filling up the house on a chilly day with the fragrance of warm roasting garlic is one way to stay warm, both inside and out.
Print This RecipeRoasted Garlic Recipe
No specific quantities are needed for this recipe. Just roast as many heads as you’ll use.
Ingredients
- Garlic, whole heads
- Olive Oil
- Sea Salt
- fresh cracked Black Pepper
preheat oven 400º F
1. Remove extra loose white skin around garlic heads. Place in a baking dish sized to fit all of your heads in a single layer, without too much extra space (small ramekins are great for just a head or two.) *optional – for a pretty presentation you can slice off the top of the head, exposing the individual garlic cloves
2. Pour a generous amount of olive oil over each head. Sprinkle a generous amount of sea salt and black pepper.
3. Cover with aluminum foil and place in oven. Roast for 45 minutes.
4. Remove foil and drizzle a little more olive oil. Return to oven and roast for 15 minutes more.
5. Remove from oven. Take garlic out of baking dishes and set aside to use or put on a serving dish. *Once oil has cooled in baking dishes, strain and save for future culinary uses. 
Subscribe to Full WORC feed by RSS
Follow White On Rice Couple - Twitter
Like White on Rice Couple via Facebook
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
I too have been giddy as a school girl the last two days because of this rain. Suddenly thinking of every pumpkin recipe i can..
this garlic recipe would be a great addition to a baguette and some brie…
on the rocks- Brie? what a fabulous idea! Thanks for the great reminder.
yummy. I love garlic. This looks soooo delicious.
I love using roasted garlic in all kinds of dishes. In fact, I made mashed potatoes with some tonight.
I’m jealous of your cool weather. The temps here are still topping out in the 90′s! Miserable!
You can also freeze the roasted garlic. Where we are, the garlic isn’t always the greatest, so when a fresh batch of garlic comes in ( and 1 lb, mesh bags go seriously on sale), I roast up a couple of pounds worth. I just dump them in a foil packet and roast away. After they’re roasted, they are easy to pop out of the skins, and then I pack them up with a bit of olive oil in 250 ml. jars before freezing
Janice- thanks for the tip on freezing the garlic! This sounds like a great option when we get big batches of fresh garlic.
Well with the weather getting to freezing temperatures already here, this is definitely something that looks delicious! I loved roasted garlic, but have never made it myself…
That looks awesome.
Nam nam nam nam nam. Just gorgeous. The pictures are fab! I’m a huge fan of roasted garlic & always have a jar ready in the fridge. Brush some on top of freshly baked bread & you reach sweet garlic nirvana!
Deeba- you said it perfectly “…sweet garlic nirvana! ” Thank you.
A classic little treat. We make this all the time – it has so many uses. A have a tiny little mini Le Creuset pot, only about 4 inches across, that is perfect for roasting heads of garlic. It even has a little lid.
How long would this roasted garlic keep for? I like the idea of it and wonder if I roasted a few, how would I store them for use over the next week?
Depending on how you want to use them, they will last quite a while. If you want to serve the whole heads, we’d recommend roasting them earlier in the day or maybe the day before for best presentation. If you are only wanting to use the roasted garlic cloves, it will last a long time. Just like how Janice, popped out the cloves then packed hers in a bit of olive oil and froze them, you can do the same but store the garlic in the fridge or even on the countertop (that’s what we do here at home.) You can use the same oil you roasted in or else top with some fresh olive oil. It is a perfect garlic confit.
Thank you so much for your reply. I look forward to trying this.
Beautiful black and white photos…I just received these sweet little mini cloves of garlic from a friend and have been sort of starting at them for a few days. I think this is their fate. Thanks for posting!
Megan- thank you. We were playing around with too many editing buttons and ended up without color!
Hummmm, I can almost smell the wonderful aroma from here:) I also enjoy the tips onthe reply above, thanks!
I really don’t know why I haven’t done this yet. It sounds magnificent!
We are having our share our rain in the Valley also. Need some sun. I’ll try your recipe for roasted garlic. Must smell so good.
I meant our share ‘of’ rain. Sorry.
Helene- Ha! no worries, we’ve known you long enough to know exactly what you meant. Hope your boys enjoy the cookies! xoxo
omg my hubs would love this!
ahh, this stuff is delicious! I can’t get enough of this, even just eating it straight. My girlfriend, however, must be a vampire…
gorgeous black and white shots
I am about to put some garlic in the oven now! I could use a little warm oven love. I frequently roast garlic and keep it in the fridge with the oil. It makes my meals good all week, stirring into pasta or salad dressing or mashing it into a potato or stirring into scrambled eggs. I know that I can always have a really tasty meal on the fly if there is some roasted garlic on hand!
Only you two could make roasted garlic look so damn sexy…Damn!