This isn't so much a recipe as it is a suggestion. I suggest that you never not have roasted garlic and/or garlic paste in your refrigerator. Preferably both. It is such a flavorful addition to literally almost any savory meal.
Ingredients:
Whole garlic bunch (or several)
Olive oil
Sea Salt
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Remove loose skin, slice off the top of a whole head of garlic (or several), and nestle it (cut side up) into a piece of foil. Drizzle with olive oil and close up completely in the foil. (Make sure none of the garlic is exposed, or it will burn.)
3. Bake in the oven for at least an hour, but keep it in there (checking every 15 minutes or so) until it is a deep, rich caramel color. I have baked mine for up to 2 hours before without burning it. The longer it stays in the oven, the more mellow and rich and creamy the flavor. It can burn, but it doesn't happen quickly wrapped in the foil, so just keep an eye on it.
4. At this point, you can just let it cool and then store it in the fridge. Pop out a few cloves as needed to drop into a soup, stew or sauce. It adds so much depth and richness to even the simplest recipes.
5. If you want to take it one more step to create paste, simply sprinkle a few cloves with sea salt just like you would do with raw minced garlic. You can either crush with a mortar and pestle or just mash up with the edge of a chef's knife or even a fork. This can be added to most of the same things as the roasted garlic cloves, and it will incorporate a little easier, but it is also magical stirred into things like quinoa, pasta, butter (to create compound butter for topping steaks, bread, etc.) or even eggs or grits. Honestly, you could spread this onto bread or crackers just as it is, and it would be delicious.