Roasted Garlic Basil Paste Recipes

ROASTED GARLIC PASTE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Cut off the top 1/3 of the garlic heads. Place the garlic heads (cut side up) in a small baking dish. Pour the olive oil over the garlic. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.
• Cover the dish with a lid or aluminum foil and bake for about 45 minutes. Remove lid or foil and bake for another 15 minutes. Cloves will begin to brown. Remove dish from oven and let cool until you can handle the garlic with your hands.
• Into a medium bowl, squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins. Using a strainer, add the oil from the baking dish to the garlic. Use a food processor or mash together with a fork until the paste has a smooth consistency.
• Cover tightly and refrigerate. Will last about one week in the fridge.

ROASTED GARLIC PASTE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°.
• Remove any loose papery skins from the outside of the garlic heads; cut off the top 1/3 of the heads to open the cloves; set aside for another use; place the heads in a small baking dish, cut sides up; pour olive oil over them and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Cover the dish tightly and bake until 3/4 done, about 45 minutes; uncover and continue to bake another 15 minutes or until the cloves begin to pop out of their skins and brown; cool.
• Squeeze the cloves out of their skins into a bowl; add the oil from the baking dish and mix well, forming a paste.
• Store, refrigerated, up to one week.

ROASTED-GARLIC PASTE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Peel the outermost layers of skin off the heads of garlic. Cut off the top third of each head to open the cloves. Put the heads, cut sides up, in a small baking dish and pour the olive oil over them. Season with salt and pepper. Cover tightly, place in the oven and roast until about 3/4 cooked (about 45 minutes).
• Uncover and return to the oven until the cloves begin to pop out of their skins and brown (about 15 minutes). Let cool. When cool enough to handle easily, squeeze the roasted garlic into a small bowl. Press firmly against the skins to extract all the sweet roasted garlic you can. Add the oil from the baking dish, the Parmesan cheese, rosemary and a pinch of gray salt. Mix well until a paste forms. Store tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

FRESH BASIL PASTE

Steps:

• Rinse the basil well and pat dry. In a food processor, puree basil with garlic until coarsely chopped. While the processor is running, slowly drizzle in the oil and process until finely pureed. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• USES: Grill or broil some sword fish and each portion with a tablespoonful or so of basil puree. Spoon a tablespoonful or so into each portion of canned vegetable soup.

ROASTED-GARLIC BASIL SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425°F.
• Wrap garlic cloves tightly in foil. Cut zucchini into 1/4-inch-thick slices and season with salt and pepper. Put foil-wrapped garlic and zucchini on a baking sheet and roast in middle of oven until garlic is tender and zucchini is pale golden, about 15 minutes. Unwrap garlic and cool.
• Have ready a bowl of ice water. In a saucepan of boiling water blanch basil and parsley 10 seconds and drain in a sieve. Refresh herbs in ice water to stop cooking and drain in sieve. Sauce ingredients may be prepared up to this point 1 day ahead and kept separately, covered and chilled.
• In a blender blend garlic, zucchini, herbs, water, and lemon juice until smooth, about 1 minute, and season with salt and pepper.

PASTA WITH ROASTED GARLIC, CHERRY TOMATOES AND BASIL

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400. Halve tomatoes and garlic cloves and toss with olive oil and balsamic (to taste - probably just a few dashes) in a baking dish.
• Combine bread crumbs, parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste. Spoon mixture evenly over tomatoes.
• Roast mixture for 30-40 minutes or until mixture is bubbly, browned, or slightly thickened.
• Meanwhile, in a large pot of salted water, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain well.
• Add pasta to the tomato mixture and toss with fresh chopped basil.

BASIL AND ROASTED GARLIC PESTO

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Cut top 1/3 off of garlic head; peel away paper skin to thin layer or 2 surrounding the cloves.
• Place in small ovenproof dish; drizzle top with 2 teaspoons of olive oil.
• Cover with foil and bake in preheated oven for 70 minutes; allow to cool.
• Squeeze garlic out of the paper skin into a small bowl; set aside.
• Place half the basil in a blender; add 1/2 the extra virgin olive oil, garlic, parsley, pine nuts, salt, pepper, and the remaining basil, the other half of the oil, and pulse until blended.
• Remove mixture to a bowl; add the parmesan and juice from lemon wedge and mix well.
• Adjust salt and pepper to taste.

HOMEMADE ROASTED GARLIC AND FRESH BASIL MARINARA SAUCE

Steps:

• Start with the onions and saute them in 3 tblsp olive oil on a medium heat till translucent, then add the fresh basil and turn down the heat while continuing to stir. Keep cooking the fresh basil to bring out the flavor, but still stirring the onions in the same pan. The basil leaves should be wilted and soft, but not burned. Then, add 3 oz of chicken stock and simmer till most of the liquid has burned off. Set aside.
• Using a food mill (which can be purchased at specialty kitchen supply stores) separate the seeds and skin from the fresh tomatoes, then with a wooden spoon, stir in all of the dry spices. Then, stir in the onions, olive oil, stewed tomatoes, and fresh Basil mixture. You want to marinate all of this in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. The acids will be infused with the herbs the longer it sits in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, start in on the garlic.
• Peel off the top layers from the garlic cloves and wrap each one in foil, place in a roasting pan. Roast the garlic under the broiler or a 425F oven for 20 minute Let cool and then unwrap. In a bowl, mash down the garlic with a fork, or potato masher, till it forms a paste, then in a blender with 1 cup of chicken stock, puree the roasted garlic paste till it liquifies. You are now ready to season the Marinara with garlic puree while it cooks.
• Take the marinated tomatoes and seasonings from the refrigerator and place in a large stock pot or sauce pan. Simmer on a low heat, stirring and gradually adding the red wine vinegar, tomato juice, and remainder of the chicken stock, add in the garlic puree and keep simmering till it comes to a slight boil. After the first boil, is when you add in the flour depending on how thick you want the consistency to be. This Marinara usually simmers 45min to 1 hour, but you can also use a crock pot on low to keep it going longer, if desired. Stir in cracked black pepper to taste.

ROASTED GARLIC PASTE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400°F.
• Make a packet out of a piece of foil by folding it in half, then making small folds along two of the open edges.
• Add the garlic, salt and oil to the packet. Fold the open side a few times to seal.
• Bake until the garlic is very soft and golden brown. In my oven, this takes about an hour.
• Once the garlic is done, remove from the oven and let cool slightly.
• Place garlic in the food processor, and process until it is a smooth paste.
• Place in a seal-able container and store in the refrigerator.

ROASTED GARLIC BASIL PESTO

Steps:

• Slice the root end off the garlic and brush with some olive oil Roast garlic, wrapped in foil at 375 for about half an hour. It should be extremely soft and golden brown. Squeeze all the garlic from the cooled head to add to the recipe. (You can also just peel garlic and slowly saute in olive oil until golden.)
• OPTIONAL STEP--- Have ready a bowl of ice water. In a saucepan of boiling salted water blanch basil, a handful at a time, 2 seconds, transferring with a slotted spoon to bowl of ice water to stop cooking. Drain basil in a sieve and pat dry. This prolongs the life of the pesto sauce and makes it better for freezing.
• In a food processor or with an immersion blender, purée basil with remaining ingredients until smooth and season with salt and pepper. Makes about a cup and a half -- .