A Cookable Feast

Eating this mozzarella and roasted garlic white bean dip is like jumping into a vat of cheesy-gooey-garlicky deliciousness that you never want to leave.

I’m not sure I’ve ever roasted garlic before creating this recipe – maybe once – which is insane, because roasted garlic is so amazing! And it’s so easy to make. I followed instructions I found from The Kitchn website, which basically entailed removing any of the garlic bulb’s excess outer skin, cutting the quarter top off of it, putting it in a pan lined with foil, drizzling it generously with olive oil, wrapping it in the foil, and roasting it in a 400-degree oven. These instructions have you start checking the garlic periodically after 40 minutes for your preferred doneness; I believe I ended up roasting mine for about an hour, so it was pretty well carmelized at that point. Then I just squeezed the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins and into the recipe. The garlic taste is pretty strong using the whole bulb here, so if that’s not your thing, I’d recommend starting with using only half of the bulb in the recipe and then adding more as your taste prefers it.

To use dried cannellini beans like I did, you’ll need to soak them overnight, or at least six to eight hours. Cover them in a bowl with several inches of water, let them soak, then drain and rinse them before cooking. Add them to a large pot with several inches of water covering them, bring them to a boil, then reduce heat to a gently rolling simmer, and cook for one hour. Drain and rinse, and you’re good to go.

I served this dip with toast points that I threw into the oven around the same time as the dip. They were nothing fancy; I just threw frozen sesame Ezekial Bread into a baking pan lined with foil, drizzled them generously with olive oil, and let them bake for about 20 minutes, which is as long as I let the dip bake. (Bear in mind that my oven is sort of wonky and seems to take longer to bake stuff than is typical; you may find that 15 minutes suffice for both the bread and the dip.) Then I cut the pieces of bread in half diagonally – easy! They were nice and crispy and perfect accompaniments to this snack.

-3/4 cups dried cannellini beans

-1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

-1 bulb’s worth of roasted garlic

-1/4 cup water

-2 tbps. olive oil

-1 tsp. salt

-1/2 tsp. black pepper

-1/2 tsp. dried oregano

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a food processor or blender, mix all ingredients well. Spread the resulting dip evenly in an oven-safe baking dish and bake until it’s at its cheesy-gooey-garlicky prime, about 15-20 minutes. Indulge and enjoy!