I've been using an Italian brand (Gia) garlic puree for the past few months. I know it's not the same as a fresh garlic from the market - but it's a huge improvement on chopping a dried up clove from the back of the basket (and some times what is available in the supermarket isn't worth buying.) I have never found the frozen or dried (yeugh) garlic granules any good, but would I appall the purists with my guilty little sectret?

No, but my point is: why chopping garlic? For most uses a whole, peeled or even unpeeled (barely crack the peel by placing the clove under the side of the blade of a knife and punch it, not too hard i it will break) clove is enough. For all of the other uses, you can use a garlic press: you don't even need to peel the clove: just place the clove in the press and squeeze. Even the most garlickly (with the exception of relaly garlic-based recipes like bagna caoda) recipes require a single (2-4 portions) clove cut in two or three peices, core removed or the taste gets too strong.

It's not that I have a problem with preparing garlic - I misleadingly used the word chopping(though thank you for the tip about removing the core - I thought that only applied when the garlic showed a suggestion of beginning to sprout) What I meant was I would never use this in preference to a lovely fresh bulb, but sometimes what is available easily is past its best and this has, in my opinion, a taste closer to good fresh garlic than some dried up clove. Their Salsa Verde, however, didn't work for me at all - tasted dusty.

Well, from an Italian pint of view, if you can taste the difference in taste between fresh and dried garlic you are using too much. Notice, please that with dried I mean dried whole heads, the outer layer dry and brittle and the cloves juicy and with a green part that has to be removed.

Fresh garlic puree is so easy to make!!

You need fresh garlic. You put it in your food processer, just peeled, in whole cloves. Turn on the food processer and add a steady stream of olive oil very slowly, as when one make homade mayo.

It will have a smooth consistency, without chunks. A true olive oil-garlic spread.

Warning: this puree is only for real garlic lovers. I love to smather it on toast with fresh tomatoes.

Note: Only use fresh garlic that has just been harvested (see Alice's comment above). It does not work well with dried garlic.

It keeps a good while in the fridge, and is a wonderful, easy thing to have around to both cook with and to eat itself.

As a lucky person whose husband grows about 1500
bulbs of garlic a year, I would suggest those unlucky people whose supermarket does not provide
good garlic to find or contract with a local grower who does. I happen to love garlic - I use it in all forms of cooking - Mexican, Indian, Thai and yes Italian. But, you want fresh. See if you can find someone through your local farmer's market or community agriculture or organic grower's association who would grow and provide you with good garlic. We store garlic
throughout the winter and it is still juicy into the Spring as long as it is kept right.

Hi,

I have a rather large (too large, in the opinion of some who shall remain nameless) vegetable garden. Garlic is the easiest of my crops to grow & manage - plant in October, harvest in August with just a bit of mulching and pruning in between. I plant 2 different types.

It helps to have a raised, well-drained bed & I buy new seed bulbs about once every 5 years.

There's not much to it & we have a plentiful year-round supply of the "stinking rose".

Hey Doug - Canadian Garlic Growers unite! We're
in New Brunswick and you're right, it's easy to
grow once you get into the groove!

Never thought to puree it - good idea, Diana. When it is new in late spring and not necessary to peel would be a good time, yes? Oh, how I love it then.

Alice, my American habit of using lots of (minced) garlic has not changed living here. My 'Italian' is just used to it now. If you saw how much I used in 1.5 kilos of steamed clams last eve., you'd probably be breathing fire. Well, between that and the peperoncini... Yes, I could still taste those sweet little Adriatic clams.

Karen, I actually like garlic. I love bagna cauda. yet, I do not overdo it where it's not required ^_^ (And you should have tasted the ultrahot mostarda I got from Osteria Sant'Ignazio, talking about breathing fire!)