Garlic Puree

By the mid-eighties, the “roasted garlic” that I introduced to California at Chez Panisse 12 years previously had spread far and wide in the United States. Unfortunately, most of the time it was not understood properly, because chefs were using any old garlic that was available. Roasting older garlic makes an indigestible puree so potent that it might as well be raw. So please use the most glorious garlic of all, which is the first crop in spring–when the cloves are fresh and white with pin