A Simple Roasted Garlic Spread

Time for my debut on the Food & Travel blog! I figure that since Carly and I are married now, we're basically the same person, and I can start contributing a little around here.

That's right, it's Bryan Dannowitz here, and I'm here to share with you an easy people-pleasing recipe that's sure to satisfy the taste buds. It being almost Halloween time, it's also sure to repel those glittering, blood-sucking vermin; those long-toothed night walkers. Yes, this is going to be pretty much pure garlic.

My father once told me "Son, if you find yourself with a woman who doesn't like garlic, then find a new woman." I always thought that this 'Dannowism' was cute, but then I grew up and remembered that my mother didn't like garlic, and, well... we all know how that went. Needless to say, that saying lost a bit of its charm. Regardless, I find myself lucky to be married to a woman that embraces the all-empowering flavor that is garlic.

So, we begin with raw garlic heads. My dad has begun growing his own garlic in his oversized backyard garden. He also buys artisan breeds of garlic from a co-worker who is a garlic enthusiast. Lucky for us, he will often generously send us home with a bag of 10 to 20 heads of garlic. The only issue is: for a household of only 2 to 3 people who cook maybe one meal a day, how do you use 20 heads of garlic?  An easy answer is to make yourself a roasted garlic spread.

All you'll need is:

• 4 heads of garlic
• 1/8th to 1/4th cup olive oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 tsp minced rosemary, or your herb of choice
• (optional) a glass of bourbon and a sweet funk playlist to kill the 45 minutes this will take to cook

First off, preheat your oven to 375°F.

Take your garlic heads and a nice sharp knife and cut them a little higher than their mid-height point.

Now, just nestle those heads in a little square of aluminum foil and drizzle some olive oil over the cut tops, just enough to coat them nice and good. If you accidentally pour too much, don't worry, I'm pretty sure it'll only end up tasting even better. Then, wrap them up nice and tight in that foil.

I always think that in this state, they look like robot heads of garlic, don't you think?

In the rare case you actually find robot garlic, do not ingest.

Now, here's where you're going to get the good stuff. The advice that goes above and beyond. You see, if you're working with more than two heads of garlic, it's but a fool who throws away the tops of these heads. My friends, there's gold in them hills. Go back over them and pop out the nuggets of garlic that you've cut off. We're going to use those puppies, too.

Yes, all this goodness is left in the tops!

Wrap up your aggregated left-clovers into some foil, add some oil, and add it to the bunch. Then, throw it into the oven and set your timer for 45 minutes.

While you wait, I recommend throwing 2 oz. of bourbon and 1 oz. of sweet vermouth into a tumbler with some ice, stir till mixed and chilled, and then add a few drops of angostura bitters, and enjoy while you wait.

Also, while you pace in circles, you can prepare the last major ingredient of the mix. In my case, I want to use rosemary, because we paid like ten dollars for this plant in the spring and have barely used it. Feel free to use parsley or thyme or whatever herb you needlessly spent money on. 

  

For a powerful substance like rosemary, I recommend 1/2 tsp per 4 heads of garlic. If you use something else, you're going to have to come up with your own rules, you rogue.

Now, that ear piercing oven alarm goes off, and it's time to pull the garlic out and let it cool a bit. When it's cool enough to handle, peel the foil back to find the cloves of garlic nice and browned and soft like this:

Should be as soft as smelly mashed potatoes at this point

Go through and squeeze out all the roasted cloves of garlic into a bowl. Oh yeah, and if you decided not to wear gloves for this recipe, your fingers won't stop smelling like they do for the next 12-24 hours.

You'll end up with a bowl that looks like this:

Not shown: the rainbow that ends just above this bowl

All that's left is to mash it all up with a fork and add the rosemary, salt, and cracked black pepper.

Serve it however you want, on whatever you want. On a cracker, on some bruschetta bread, add it as a garnish to some appetizer, or, heck, put it in a popsicle mold and freeze away for a delightful summer treat.

Cheers.

And if anybody is upset about me making a blog post about something as simple as roasting garlic, think to yourself -- shouldn't we take it upon ourselves at every opportunity to raise awareness of the effortless delight that is roasted garlic? Yum.

Now, if you don't mind, I will welcome my wife home with a garlicky fresh kiss, as I relinquish back to her control over her blog.

See you next time, everyone!

- Bryan D.