I feel like my last recipe for that crustless pie was somewhat involved, so today I’m going to share something simple! Confit. Which I realize sounds kind of fancy, but that’s just because it’s a French word (from the verb confire meaning preserve). On the contrary, confit is quite simply a generic term for food that has been immersed in a substance like oil for flavor or preservation. For example, you can have fruit confit (candied fruit), which is just fruit infused/preserved with sugar.
Garlic confit is about as simple as it gets. Literally just some oil and peeled garlic cloves roasted for about 40 minutes. You can’t screw it up…well, unless you burn the garlic. It’s rustic, but absolutely decadent at the same time, with that rich and smoky flavor and sweet finish. It definitely has a way of making you feel like you’re treating yourself to something special.
You can throw in some sea salt and cracked peppercorns or red pepper flakes or even some fresh herbs to add some depth to your confit. I did all of the above, as well as some sweet Italian peppers in this particular batch.
Roast it all in a covered casserole dish until the garlic is soft, but not brown because brown equals bitter. If you decide to add the peppers, make sure you remove the seeds and tops and skin before eating. The skin should peel right off as long as the peppers were cooked enough.
There are so many practical applications for garlic confit in the kitchen, so it’s nice to make a big batch to keep in the fridge so you can:
1. Impress your friends with a no-big-deal snack of velvety garlic confit and crackers, like so…
2. Use the flavored oil in your cooking.
3. Whip some confit into a salad dressing or some softened butter.
4. Be cute about it and jar some up as gifts.
5. Or drop a few cloves into a pasta dish or a frittata, like we did here…
Recipe
Cook time: 30-40 mins. Double recipe to increase batch size. Keeps in fridge for a month. Adding the Italian sweet peppers is optional. Feel free to experiment by adding fresh herbs like thyme, rosemary or basil or even dried herbs de Provence.You need:
- 24 cloves of whole, peeled garlic
- 1 cup olive oil
- Cracked black pepper
- Sea salt
- Red pepper flakes
- Sprig or two of fresh rosemary, stem on
- Splash of water
- Several sweet Italian peppers
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Place garlic cloves, olive oil, splash of water, salt, pepper and herbs (if using) in an oven safe casserole dish. Cover with lid or foil and bake for up to 40 mins or until garlic is nice and soft. You’ll want the oil to reach a simmer, but not much more in order to avoid any browning, which will cause bitterness.
- Remove from oven and let cool completely before transferring to storage container. Remove stems, seeds and skin from Itailan peppers before serving.
23 Comments
oooh this sounds so gooood!
sound’s like simple and spicy.
Yum! The simplest recipes are often the best, aren’t they!
This is absolutely going on my list to make for the week! It looks so scrumptious!!
I adore roasted garlic and sweet peppers. I’ve been making all sorts of sauces, spreads and condiments lately. Now I think I should try homemade confit! Thank you for the inspiration.
that sounds so good. I love whole cloves of roasted garlic. Smashing them into a nice piece of toast sounds great.
Gorgeous! I love this type of cooking, so simple and versatile. Great ideas!
I must say I really like the preparation part. It looks beautiful.
This looks beautiful…how simple but impressive! I could think of a thousand different ways to incorporate this into meals. Wonderful photographs as well.
I swoon. You need some buttons for “liking” and “pinning” and “tweeting”. I would do all of those things. :-)
che ricetta deliziosa! complimenti, un bacio :)
hello dear,
really nice and simple recipes, i really like them.
as for the confit, shall i store it in a tight lid container in the fridge right? how long does it keep?
yep! Best to store it in a glass jar or food storage container with a lid.
peppers won’t be around for a while here, but I’ll tuck this one away for summer. Thanks!
I love smushy confit vegetables on toast as a hearty winter snack. Just a lovely thing to batch-make to step up your weekday eats and stride ahead, as you said. Think I might get a batch going soon. Thanks for this!
Great post, I was thinking what to do with this bag of mini sweet peppers. – Roasted last week and they were flavourful, so definitely going to try your recipe. Great photos and layout.
Love the vibrant colors! I just wish my stomach liked peppers as much as I do!
Congrats on your recognition on Saveur. I am a chef and food writer from NY. I went to school at Rollins from 91-92 (no food trucks there then!).
Loving your recipes and hope to visit your empanada truck if I pass through Winter Park sometime!
Just made this with small sweet peppers and garlic. Cannot wait to use it. Thanks so much because it opens an entirely new gateway to other uses.
this looks awesome! I love the flavour of garlic and love looking for ways to get the same flavour without any of the harshness – this seems to be a good one!
I’ve managed to get hold of some black garlic recently and wonder if your recipe would work with that. I think it could, would still be garlicky but more of a stickier balsamicy type of flavour…
wow! perfect, i have a big bag that the two of us can’t finish, i’m totally doing this so they don’t go to waste!
Will check it out!
Just discovered your blog and I am in love! I will be a regular visitor for sure. Thank you!
Warmly,
Elizabeth