Mojo de Ajo

Few recipes have made me as excited and eager to get into the kitchen and start peeling four nail-burning heads of garlic as when I saw Rick Bayless stir up some garlic-gold alchemy on public television with his Mojo de Ajo.

Mojo de Ajo, which apparently translates into a bath of garlic (I wouldn't really know-- I don't speak any Spanish), is a traditional Mexican dish with infinitely delicious possibilities, and you can see why. Think of a ton of spicy garlic drowned in fruity olive oil and then kissed alive by tangy lemon juice. It's magic.


Mojo de Ajo is great on almost anything: drizzle a few drops on toast or a salad, stir it into pasta, even toss some root vegetables in it and roast them. And of course, there's a plethora of Mexican dishes you can add it to for some extra mojo at the dinner table.

So here it is, Rick Bayless's incredible Mojo de Ajo, which I used today to spice up an extra-special dish of penne with herbs and roasted mushrooms. It was worth firing up the oven on a near-100-degree day.

Enjoy!

Rick Bayless's Mojo de Ajo

Ingredients:

4 heads of garlic, peeled (place a large chef's knife on each pod of garlic and smack it with the heel of your hand to get the papery skin off more easily)

2 cups olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup lemon juice

Place the garlic in an 8-inch-square glass baking dish and pour the olive oil over it. Add salt and stir well.

Place the dish in a 325-degree oven and bake 45 minutes.

Add the lemon juice and bake for another 20 minutes for the flavors to infuse.

Remove, mash the garlic with a fork or potato masher, cool, and pour it all into an air-tight glass jar. The mojo de ajo keeps for at least three months in a refrigerator.