SAGE SAUCE RECIPES

Steps:

• Cut tomatoes in half horizontally. Squeeze out the seeds and discard, if you wish. Press the cut side of tomato against the large holes of a box grater and grate tomato flesh into a bowl. Discard skins. You should have about 4 cups.
• Put tomato pulp in a low wide saucepan over high heat. Add salt, olive oil, tomato paste, garlic, basil and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a brisk simmer.
• Reduce the sauce by almost half, stirring occasionally, to produce about 2 1/2 cups medium-thick sauce, 10 to 15 minutes. Taste and adjust salt. It will keep up to 5 days in the refrigerator or may be frozen.

Steps:

• Cut the butter into large pieces and add it to a light colored pan over medium low flame.
• As soon as the butter starts to foam up add the sage leaves, (make sure they are dry) and cook together for 3 to 5 minutes.
• The butter will foam up and start turning brown (noisette). Do not touch it, and do not stir.
• The moment the foam subsides remove from heat. The sage should be crispy by now. Hit it with a squeeze of lemon juice if you prefer and serve it over cooked ravioli or gnocchi.
• When cooking the pasta make sure to reserve a little bit of the pasta water.
• Add the cooked ravioli to the butter sage sauce and gently toss to coat. Add a little bit of the reserved pasta water If needed to loosen up the sauce.
• Serve with freshly cracked black pepper on top.