Baked wet garlic with lemon, marjoram, peas and goat’s cheese

Baked wet garlic with lemon, marjoram, peas and goat’s cheese

Summer

Peeling a clove of garlic or two is an everyday occurrence. I don’t usually think about it much. It gets sliced or crushed or bashed or grated and I’ve moved on, the garlic is forgotten, lost in a recipe forever. This year I actually grew some of my own garlic at home. I put the cloves in the ground in the depths of winter and harvested whole bulbs in the summer. It took almost 6 months before they were ready. I know I’ll think differently about this garlic because I helped it grow, although I didn’t have to do that much. Baking an entire bulb of fresh garlic, like I do here, is a wonderful way to celebrate this delightful vegetable.

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 2 large wet garlic bulbs
  • 150g (5½oz) shelled fresh or frozen peas
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • a handful of small mint leaves
  • 2–3 marjoram sprigs, leaves picked
  • 50g (1¾oz) soft goat’s cheese
  • a good squeeze of lemon juice
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 thick slices of sourdough bread, toasted, to serve

Method

Get a hot fire going and allow it to burn back to nice, chunky, glowing embers. Wrap each garlic bulb in a double layer of kitchen foil and nestle each one down into the embers of the fire. Turn the bulbs every 10–15 minutes to ensure they bake evenly. After about 35–40 minutes, the garlic should be tender. Lift it out of the fire and give it a squeeze. It’ll feel nice and soft if it’s ready.

While the garlic is cooling a little, set a medium pan over a hot part of the fire. Add the peas and pour over just enough water to cover them. Bring to a simmer, then drain off the water. Add 1 tablespoon of the extra-virgin olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Chop half the mint and half the marjoram leaves and stir them through the peas, too.

Unwrap the baked garlic and carefully cut the bulbs in half around their circumference. Arrange the garlic halves over two plates, trickle them with the remaining extra-virgin olive oil and season them with salt and pepper. Spoon over the warm peas and dot over the soft goat’s cheese. Finish with a scattering of the remaining herbs and a good squeeze of lemon juice. Serve with the grilled toasts.

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