Fettucine with Sage and Brown Butter Sauce

Photo by Robin Bellinger

This fettucine with brown butter sauce recipe was from the wonderfully creative folks over at Serious Eats. Sounded great to me because not only is it cheap, I've just completed some rather extensive oral surgery and while I love sugar free instant pudding and soup I know I'll get sick of them before I can deal with other stuff.

I mentioned this recipe to my Italian honey (sage is "salvia" in Italian) so that's what I told him is in it. His eyes lit up and I knew I'd stumbled over a winner.

Thought I'd mention that to add some color, I tossed a few chopped Roma tomatoes into the cooked pasta. Think of this as a blank canvas upon which one may create any number of masterpieces.

Pasta with Brown Butter and Sage

-serves 4-
Ingredients

1 pound pasta, preferably fettucine
Salt
4-6 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 sage leaves
Pepper
Pecorino romano or parmigiano to finish

Procedure

1. Cook the pasta in a large pot of well salted boiling water. When it is done, set aside about a quarter cup of the cooking water and then drain the pasta. Remove it to a serving bowl

2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. It's best if the saucepan has a light-colored bottom so you can watch the butter darken. After the foam subsides, watch the butter carefully. When it begins to go from golden to a light caramel color (and begins to smell more interesting and delicious), drop in the sage leaves and toss them around a bit. Remove from the heat.

3. Right away, swirl a little of the reserved cooking water into the pasta in case it is sticking together. Then pour the butter over the pasta and toss to coat. Grind over some pepper and grate over some cheese.