A Delicious & Easy Celery Side Dish

I never thought I'd love a celery side dish, but I think this one is really delicious; and it's very easy to make. It was a nice accompaniment to a ravioli dish I served. This one is an Alton Brown recipe, courtesy of Food Network.com. (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/braised-celery-recipe.html) It is a 5-star recipe with 31 reviews.

It takes about 20 minutes to prepare, and serves four. Since there were only two of us, I only used 3 stalks of celery rather than the 8 called for below. (I wish I had used 4 or 5 stalks because it was so tasty.) That's the only change I made.

Ingredients

8 stalks of celery, rinsed and trimmed, leaves chopped and reserved
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Pinch kosher salt
Pinch freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup good quality beef stock or broth

Directions

Peel any of the fibrous outer stalks of celery with a vegetable peeler and slice into 1-inch pieces on the bias.

Heat the butter in a 10-inch sauté pan over medium heat. Once melted, add the celery, salt and pepper, and cook for 5 minutes until just beginning to soften slightly.

Add the beef broth and stir to combine. Cover and reduce the heat to low. Cook until the celery is tender but not mushy - approximately 5 minutes.

Uncover and allow the celery to continue to cook for an additional 5 minutes or until the liquid has been reduced to a glaze.

Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the reserved leaves.