Author Notes
This is a vaguely Italian inspired recipe - many ago I attended an Italian cooking demonstration with a carrot puree of some kind topped with a sauce made with with fontina cheese. The combination popped into my head in response to this contest and I came up with this. In making the roux, I realized I had some D'Artagnan truffle butter in the freezer so used that instead of regular butter. If I had a truffle, I would have shaved a little over top as well! —healthierkitchen
Ingredients
- Roasted Carrots
-
1/2 pound
fresh, thin carrots, peeled and with ends trimmed. If you don't have thin carrots, cut them in to fourths, lengthwise.
-
1
small to medium sized onion, peeled and ends trimmed and cut in half lengthwise and each half cut into thirds or fourths, depending on size.
-
1 tablespoon
olive oil
-
three or four
sprigs fresh thyme
- Fontina Sauce
-
1 tablespoon
butter (or truffle butter if you have it)
-
1 tablespoon
AP flour
-
1/3 cup
milk
-
3 - 4 tablespoons
chicken stock (or to keep vegetarian, use vegetable stock)
-
2 ounces
shredded fontina cheese
-
salt and pepper
to taste
-
1
squeeze fresh lemon juice (maybe two teaspoons)
Directions
-
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
-
In a small sheet pan (I used a quarter sheet) or roasting pan, add carrots, onion sections, and thyme sprigs. Pour olive oil over top and then mix the vegetables gently to coat. Sprinkle a pinch or two of salt and a couple of grinds of pepper over top.
-
Roast for about 25 minutes on the middle rack of the oven, turning the carrots and onions once or twice to make sure they don't burn. Check them at 20 minutes, but depending on your oven it could take as long as 30 minutes for the carrots to soften and brown just a little without letting the onions burn.
-
While the vegetables roast, prepare the sauce. First add the butter or truffle butter to a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the flour and whisk together and let cook for a couple of minutes. Add the milk and 3 tablespoons of stock and keep whisking until the mixture begins to thicken. Add the cheese and keep whisking until the cheese has melted and sauce is a good consistency. If it gets too thick, add another tablespoon of stock. Add the squeeze of lemon juice and mix a little more.
-
Taste sauce and add salt and pepper, if necessary.
-
When fully roasted, plate carrots and onions, discarding thyme. Spoon fontina sauce over top. If any bits of onion have browned a little more, they make a nice garnish.
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Serve immediately.
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