Ravioli in Sage Butter

Thursday December 20

We boiled up 25 (i.e., half) of the frozen spinach-and-ricotta ravioli that we took home from April's "Holy Ravioli" festival at Sacred Heart Church.
http://whatholtandbarbarahadfordinner.blogspot.com/2007/04/holy-ravioli.html
About 35 minutes in the boiling water, and they're ready.

The sauce, burro e salvia, is the simplest that Italy (with the help of our garden) affords. I've searched the blog, and I can hardly believe that we haven't made it for this past year and a half. But if that's so, here are the incredibly simple directions.

Melt some butter in a saucepan. Chop up some fresh sage leaves. Put the sage in the butter. Keep the heat high. Watch it carefully and take it off the heat when the butter begins to brown, so the sage can crisp up a tiny bit. Toss the pasta with the sauce, either in the pan or on heated plates. Salt and white pepper as you like. And as Gordon Ramsay says, "done!" (I prefer that to Emeril's "bam!")

Though you can try any kind of pasta with this, its clear flavor is particularly good with richly-filled shapes like tortellini or ravioli. The Italians even use it for ravioli (g)nudi, "naked ravioli" i.e. ravioli fillings cooked like meatballs, without the pasta around them.