Roasted Garlic Bisque

Tons of roasted garlic makes a mellow and glorious creamy soup.
Even people who don't think they like garlic will love this!

For roasted garlic:

• 5 whole heads garlic (that's heads, not cloves!)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

For garlic groutons:

• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 loaf (8 oz) French bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper

For bisque:

• 2 cartons (32 oz each) chicken broth (8 cups total)
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter or margarine
• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1 cup heavy or whipping cream
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare roasted garlic: Line 9-inch square baking pan with foil. Remove any loose papery skin from garlic, leaving heads intact. Cut off and discard 1 inch from top of each garlic head to expose tips of most cloves. Place heads, cut side up, in prepared pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Turn heads cut side down. Loosely wrap foil around heads to enclose. Roast garlic 1 hour or until very soft and golden brown. Carefully open foil; cool garlic slightly.

While garlic is roasting, prepare garlic croutons: In blender or food processor, combine garlic and olive oil. Pulse until mixture is mooth. In large bowl, toss bread with salt, pepper, and olive oil mixture until evently coated. Transfer to jelly-roll pan. In same oven with roasted garlic, on another rack, toast bread 20 to 25 minutes or until golden, stirring occasionally. Cool croutons in pan on wire rack. Makes about 6 cups.

Prepare bisque: Separate roasted garlic cloves from heads and squeeze pulp from each clove. Transfer garlic pulp to small bowl and set aside. Transfer empty garlic skins to 5- to 6-quart saucepot. Pour broth and 1 cup water into saucepot with garlic skins. Heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer one hour to blend flavors. Strain broth through fine-mesh sieve into large bowl, gently pressing garlic skins with back of spoon to extract all liquid. Discard garlic skins.

In same saucepot, heat oil and butter over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook for 5 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Add chopped garlic and cook 30 seconds, stirring. Add pepper, cream, reserved broth, roasted garlic, and 4 cups croutons to saucepot. Head to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 5 minutes to blend flavors.

Using a hand-held blender, puree soup in pot until all croutons are incorporated. If you don't have a hand-held blender, ladle soup into a regular blender in batches and puree. Stir in parmesan and heat through. To serve, ladle soup into 12 bowls. Sprinkle with remaining croutons.