Roasted Carrots, Celery, Shallot, and Garlic

The cleaning of the refrigerator continues.  This morning I noticed that we had 3 nice big carrots that had been in the fridge for a while, and half a head of celery that was about to go bad if we didn't use it. So I decided to roast them, and serve it with the last remaining bit of Italian Salsa Verde.

Here is an article which explains how to roast any vegetable.

3 carrots
1/2 celery head, with the celery leaves
1 or 2 whole shallot, remove the
1/2 head of garlic
salt
freshly ground pepper
olive oil

Preheat oven to 415 - 425 F.

Scrub the dirt off the carrots.  Trim the stalks to about 1" (if you haven't already), but leave the tops on the carrots because this looks pretty.

Cut the bottom off the celery.  Separate and wash the celery stalks.  Cut the celery stalks in half.  Cut most of the celery leaves off the stalks (leaving a few leaves on the stalks tastes nice).  Coarsely chop the celery leaves and set aside.

Remove the outer papery skin from the shallots.

Leave the garlic head whole, and with their paper (the paper protects them since they burn easily) and attached together, if possible.

Toss all leaves in a large cast iron skillet with a generous glug of olive oil, a pinch of salt, and pepper.  If you don't mind getting your hands oily, then I find it easiest to evenly coat the vegetables with oil if I toss the vegetables with my hands.

Roast in the oven until the vegetables are done.  Check them frequently.  The vegetables will cook at different times, so you will need to remove the vegetables from the pan and set them aside as they become fully cooked.  Also stir the vegetables every once in a while (every 15 - 20 minutes).

I have a tendency to roast vegetables for too long, since I like to try to caramelize them.  Here's how long it took to cook my vegetables:

• celery: 25 minutes
• carrots & shallot: 40 minutes
• garlic: 1 hour (I cooked my garlic for too long.  The garlic is done when the cloves are soft and mushy and possibly slightly caramelized.  They are over cooked if any part of them becomes black and burnt, however, if this happens you can scrape the non-burnt parts off and serve it as a paste to smear on the vegetables.  Their cooking time should be reduced by at least 15 minutes.)

When all of the vegetables have been cooked, place the still pipping hot pan on the stove top.  Toss the reserved celery leaves into the pan, and saute very briefly (10 - 30 seconds) to give the leaves the barest hint of heat (they should be still green and vibrant) and to flavor them with some of the olive oil and salt remaining in the pan.

Arrange all roasted vegetables in an attractive formation in a bowl or on a plate.  Serve hot or at room temperature.  You can also serve the vegetables with Italian Salsa Verde, if you like.