Yotam Ottolenghi’s secret ingredient: black garlic

The chef and cookery writer uses the preserved vegetable to add flavour and depth to roast chicken, gravy and vegan bolognese

Black garlic has a really lovely deep umami flavour that reminds me of liquorice and balsamic vinegar. It’s quite sweet and savoury at the same time, with some hint of garlic in the background.

Essentially, it’s just fresh garlic heads left at a particularly low temperature – between 60-90C with a specific humidity for, I think, a couple of weeks. The heads dry out and cook, and turn from the wonderful creamy colour that we know to totally black and shrivelled.