Of Sage and Butter

It was a couple years ago when I first discovered the miraculous marriage of sage and butter. I was visiting my best friend in NYC, and we went to Etcetera Etcetera for dinner. I had the "Casoncelli alla bergamasca" which I'm pretty sure is Italian for "This is so good I would sell my firstborn to eat it again". The menu description read: "Veal, raisin and amaretto filled ravioli with butter, pancetta and sage". The ravioli was delightful. The pancetta - perfect. But then, there were these crispy sage leaves fried in butter that simply dissolved on your tongue in a puff of salty-savory goodness! 19th century opium dens could not produce the level of food-euphoria I experienced after eating one of these magical-fried-leaves of happiness. And like any good addict, I have spent the remainder of my life trying to recreate that first wonderful high.

In the post to come, I will give you a recipe for such an attempt (and quite a successful one I might add) at creating a sage and butter masterpiece.

I now give you an interpretive drumming of my reaction upon eating the fried sage leaves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXLPveilqo8&feature=related
Go to 1:00 and enjoy.