Roasted Garlic could be classified as Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy if we actually classified our cooking into ridiculous categories of cooking difficulty. Since we don't...let's get started with making a delicious companion to other foods, an adornment if you will. This is certainly not a stand-alone item you would eat by the handful, although true Garlicphiles have weirded me out before. It can however add to both side dishes, main courses, and all sorts of other super rad-tasting stuff. Set the oven to 400º.

First we shall start with some full heads of garlic:



Next, you'll need to start peeling off the outside layer of the garlic bulb:



The goal here is to leave the group of individual cloves in tact and just remove that outside layer of "skin":



At this point you'll need to slice off the top of the garlic bulb to expose the cloves themselves...maybe a half-inch off the top:



Once you've sliced all the tops off of your garlic bulbs, toss them onto a sheet pan or cake pan or whatever and grab that olive oil to give each head a good dousing:



After slathering some olive oil on...and no this doesn't need to be extra virgin olive oil...and no I'm not going to abbreviate extra virgin olive oil into "EVOO" like Rachel Ray on the Food Network. Gag me with a freaking spoon. Oh, back to what I was saying...after the olive oil slathering you'll need to wrap up each bulb in aluminum foil:



Wrapping up the garlic in foil will allow the cloves to get all soft and mushy without burning:



Now toss those puppies into that 400º oven for 30-45 minutes (until they seem soft to the squeeze) and get ready for some amazing smells to start pouring from your kitchen:



After about 40 minutes in the oven here's what mine looked like:



Oh baby...



At this point it's time to get your hands dirty...rather...it's time to get your hands stinky. After you've allowed the roasted bulbs to cool down you can extract the cloves. The garlic is now soft and squishy and it should be pretty easy to squeeze the heads to get the warm, roasted garlicky goodness out. Just pinch them...you'll figure it out:



When all is said and done you should have a bunch of roasted garlic that you can do whatever you please with. They mix right into mashed potatoes or you can just toss a few of them onto a steak. Get creative. These roasted cloves are much less pungent and powerful than a raw garlic clove. The roasting with olive oil brings out a sweetness and subdues the sharp flavor to replace it with some oh so smooth and amazing.



My application for this roasted garlic was to mash it up with a fork and add a bunch of fresh Rosemary for a tasty Pork tenderloin topping. See exhibit A:



So do it. It's easy and it's so awesome to taste. Plus...you won't have to deal with Vampires for a month.