Beautiful Beans

This is lovely little side dish. I started roasting my green beans after I read an article about the method in Cook's Illustrated. It's really a great technique: it's relatively hands-off, it works well with crappy out of season beans, and the beans taste really good when they're done.

The roasting intensifies the bean flavors and it's really easy to toss the cooked beans with herbs or other seasonings. These are also great cold or at room temperature.

Roasted Green Beans

• 4 small handfuls green beans (enough for 4 servings, eyeball the portion size) - I used green, purple and yellow green beans
• olive oil
• salt
• minced herbs or garlic (optional)

Cut the stem end off the green beans and remove the strings if they are tough. On a large baking sheet toss the beans with enough oil so they're glistening. (Don't use so much oil that the beans are sitting in a pool of it.) Sprinkle with a little salt.

Put the baking sheet in the oven at 400 degrees. After 10-15 minutes, stir the beans around; they should be browning and softening.

After another 10 minutes, toss the beans with the herbs. If you're using garlic, toss the garlic with it and then put the beans back in the oven for a few minutes.

Serve.