Sage and butter

This is another post in the series that I appear to have started with beetroot and eggs - focusing on those simple but oh-so-tasty combinations that have enriched many a dish in many a kitchen. Today's combination is sage and butter, or rather, a very specific combination of sage and butter - you warm the butter till melted, then toss in some fresh sage leaves, and heat till the sage and butter mixture browns. This creates a delicious rich mixture of warm creamy smooth nutty melted butter perfumed with aromatic sage.

This combination is very peculiar to Italian cooking, although it doesn't seem to be a regional specialty. It is used in Tuscany as part of their sugo d'arrosto sauce, which is very simple - sage browned in butter, garlic and meat broth. This then goes over tagliarini - local freshly made pasta slightly thinner than spaghetti, boiled till al dente. Very simple - and very tasty.

Further south, in Rome, the famous local specialty, saltimbocca alla romana, or veal escalopes Roman style, utilises sage browned in butter as a flavouring for meat. The dish consists of veal escalopes wrapped in parma ham together with a sage leaf on each escalope. The wrapped meat is then browned in butter. The butter and cooking juices are then reduced, sometimes with white wine, to form the sauce.

You can also use the sage and browned butter combination as a sauce for gnocchi, those potato dumplings which are usually eaten with ricotta and spinach. I believe that this combination is actually American in origin, not Italian.

In actual fact the combinations are endless - the nutty aromatic flavours will go well with most white meats. Sage and butter can be combined with anything sweet (butternut squash perhaps?) to create either a great tasting sauce, or perhaps to infuse the flavours directly into the base meat or vegetable.