When you’ve got fresh garlic, make aioli

If you garden, you know we’re almost on top of the garlic harvest. Some is out of the ground and being sold now as fresh garlic, which is absolutely wonderful. We would all prefer fresh garlic year-round, but that’s not possible, so most of the crop is cured, some in the field on top of the soil and some by hanging in a barn or another cool, dry place. That’s how we end up with year-round garlic.

Back in the mid-1990s, I ran a small nonprofit called the Sonoma Provence Exchange. In 1994, our little group was invited to attend an agricultural fair in Aix-en-Provence, France. If memory serves me well, we had wines from 14 local wineries, honey, lavender, olive oils from DaVero and B.R. Cohn and more shipped to the fair, where we had a double-size booth.

My French served me well, and I was able to talk with a lot of people about Sonoma County. I even did a segment on a French radio station set up at the fair, just as KSRO typically sets up at our fairs.

The highlight for me was, of course, the meal — the grand aioli, the aioli monstre.

A grand aioli is a celebration of the garlic harvest, an extravaganza of seasonal vegetables, good bread and a few other specialties. I had enjoyed it at Chez Panisse in Berkeley and in my own home, but in France? Were we getting it right? Could I be this lucky?

I am happy to say that yes, we were! Here, the meal is fairly rustic — a big platter of things we grab with our fingers and swirl in a sauce. It isn’t the sort of thing you’d find at picnics in working-class neighborhoods, but that’s just what it was in France. The grand aioli was served in a huge space, like a big cafeteria, and I remember loving being surrounded by scruffy French farmers smoking cigarettes, eating extremely garlicky aioli and swigging big glasses of ice-cold rosé.

The next few weeks are a perfect time for a grand aioli. It’s an easy and delicious way to celebrate a graduation, a birthday or just that the sun came up yet again.

Grand Aioli, also known as Aioli Monstre

Serves 4 to 8

1 pound salt cod

Aioli (recipes follow)

6 medium beets, roasted until tender

1 small cauliflower, trimmed, cut into florets and roasted until tender

Kosher salt

¾ pound very small potatoes (marble or creamer size), roasted until tender

2 medium carrots, trimmed, peeled, cut into diagonal slices and roasted until tender

½ pound small green beans, trimmed and blanched for 4 minutes

6 farm eggs, hard-cooked, in their shells

1 bunch French breakfast radishes, rinsed and trimmed

2 Little Gem lettuces, cored and leaves separated

1 pound asparagus spears, roasted until tender

Leaves from 1 or 2 green globe artichokes

Black pepper in a mill

Chive flowers, optional

The day before serving, prepare the salt cod and make the aioli. First, put the fish in a container that will hold it flat and cover it with water by at least 2 inches. Refrigerate for 24 hours, changing the water 3 or 4 times. Drain well and rinse.

Next, choose one of the two methods for making aioli. After making it, cover it tightly and refrigerate.

Shortly before serving, put the cod into a saucepan, cover with fresh water and slowly bring to a simmer. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and cover it. Let sit for 15 minutes. Drain thoroughly; remove any bits of fat, skin or bones; break into large pieces; put into a bowl and cover.

Peel the beets and cut them into wedges. Season the cauliflower with a little salt and toss gently.

Set the aioli in the center of a large serving platter and arrange the other ingredients in groups around it. Stack the lettuce leaves on top of each other and leave the eggs in their shells for each guest to peel.

Grind black pepper over the salt cod and garnish the platter with chive flowers, if using.

Set the platter in the middle of the table. Each guest should have a small bowl to spoon aioli into, and a plate. They use tongs to transfer everything they want to their plates and then use their fingers for dipping each morsel into the aioli.

Although aioli is a sauce, a grand aioli is a meal, with the sauce at the center as the condiment that pulls it all together. In its traditional home of Provence, it’s a late-spring meal that celebrates the garlic harvest. It includes salt cod, beets, cauliflowers, potatoes, carrots, green beans and hard-cooked eggs. Most traditional versions also include stewed octopus. This version works perfectly at this time of year in Sonoma County. Later in the summer or fall, I switch out the vegetables, adding local tomatoes, sweet peppers or grilled zucchini in place of asparagus, artichokes and beets. Don’t feel you must use everything listed here; select those that most appeal to you and choose quantities based on how many people will join you.

Aioli (by hand)

Makes 1¾ to 2 cups

1 large garlic bulb, cloves separated, lightly crushed and peeled

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed

2 large egg yolks, at room temperature

1 to 1 ¼ cups best-quality extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Put the garlic into a large suribachi or mortar, add the teaspoon of salt and use a wooden pestle to crush and grind the garlic until it forms a very smooth paste. Mix in the egg yolks.

Shift from the wooden pestle to a sturdy whisk and begin adding oil a few drops at a time, gradually increasing the amount as the emulsion increases in volume.

After the oil has been incorporated, taste the mixture. If it is flat, add a few generous pinches of salt, placing it in one area; slowly pour the lemon juice over it so it dissolves and whisk well.

The texture of the aioli should be that of mayonnaise; if it seems too stiff, thin with up to 1 tablespoon of water.

Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving. Aioli will keep, refrigerated and covered, for 2 to 3 days.

This method produces the best aioli, with a voluptuous texture that is like satin on your palate. Be sure to grind the garlic into as smooth a puree as possible before adding other ingredients.

Aioli (by machine)

Makes 1 ¾ cups

1 large egg, at room temperature

2 egg yolks, at room temperature

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 garlic bulb, cloves separated, crushed and peeled

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed

¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil

¾ cup mildly flavored olive oil

1 to 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Pinch of Piment d’Esplette or ground cayenne

Put the egg, egg yolks, mustard, garlic and teaspoon of salt into the work bowl of a food processor and pulse until the garlic is pulverized and the mixture is uniform. With the machine operating, slowly drizzle in the extra-virgin olive oil. When it is fully incorporated, slowly drizzle in the other olive oil.

Add half the lemon juice, pulse and taste for salt and acid. If it is a bit flat, add salt and the remaining lemon juice, along with the ground pepper, and pulse several times.

Use a rubber spatula to scrape the aioli into a bowl or jar, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before using.

Aioli will keep, refrigerated and covered, for 2 to 3 days.

There are several reasons you might prefer to make aioli in a food processor. The best reason is if the weather is really hot; a machine-made emulsion is tighter and does not break as easily in heat as handmade emulsions do. Other reasons include having a weak mixing arm, being in a hurry and being tired.

Michele Anna Jordan is the author of 24 books to date. Email her at michele@micheleannajordan.com.