I love growing garlic. It's so easy (you actually have to stop watering them when summer starts!) and having fresh, homegrown garlic to use at your leisure feels wonderful.
Last week, I dug up my garlic. It's kind of a tricky thing, digging garlic. Since I stopped watering the garlic a month ago, the ground was as hard as a rock. And, OK, maybe I shouldn't have been trying to dig in hard ground with flip flops as my only foot protection. And I got the job done, but I did manage to nick several bulbs with the shovel.
It's really not a problem. They're still usable. I just have to use them now and not store them for fall and winter use.
So, hmm. What to do with several heads of garlic? Can I freeze it? Questionable. Ooh, what if I roast it and freeze that? That would work. But don't we have a potluck to attend tomorrow? Maybe I could do something for that?
Yep, that was the winner. Roasted garlic focaccia bread. Ohhh yum.
I started with my bread machine pizza dough, but added chopped fresh basil and oregano from the garden to the mix. I roasted 5 small heads of garlic and mashed the cloves and a little olive oil with a fork. I stretched the dough to fit my 16x12" rimmed baking sheet (which was covered with a little oil and cornmeal...boy, the baked focaccia was just sliding around on that cornmeal! No sticking!), spread it with the roasted garlic, sprinkled with sea salt and black pepper, and baked at 425° for 15-20 minutes. It's a lot easier than it seems, I promise. And really delicious.
I sliced it up with my pizza cutter into tiny, two-bite pieces. Perfect for potluck tasting.
It was a big hit! The entire plate was gone within half an hour, and I even had a stranger walk by me saying, "I'm going to go get some more of that garlic bread. It's really good!" That made me smile. :)
