The sage in my garden is nearing its end, but while there are a few leaves left, I have one last dish planned for it.
Several years ago, I began a life-long ambition of planting an herb garden. (If you are someone who has always wanted to do it and hasn’t yet, I urge you to consider it next spring. It’s so rewarding and lots of fun!)
While I am familiar with the most herbs, I ventured into the world of sage without a lot of experience. Sage has such a strong presence—if you get it on your hands, you’ll smell like it for the rest of the night. At first, I was at a bit of a loss on what to do.
My experimentation began with a basic sage and brown butter sauce, then ventured into another tried and true partner, roasted butternut squash. Once I had this mastered, I was no longer frightened and I decided to combine all of my favorite things into one master creation. My signature portobello ravioli was born.
I have made this dish as a main dish, as a side dish, and as an appetizer for dinner parties. Most rewarding, though, was when I made it for an extremely sick friend. My friend was on a very restricted diet due to an obstruction and was not allowed to eat anything larger than a playing die. Despite cutting everything into small pieces, I showed up with this dish for her family, not knowing if she could even touch it.
The next morning I received a phone call. She had eaten half the dish herself the night before without sharing, had just polished off the other half moments earlier, and was now drinking the sauce.
If that’s not a recipe worth sharing, I’m not quite sure what is. Enjoy!
Portobello Ravioli
2 cloves garlic
Butter/olive oil mixture (I use about 2 tablespoons of each)
5-7 sage leaves, julienned
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
About 1 pound roasted butternut squash*
2 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
1/2 cup of goat cheese, crumbled
Kosher salt to taste
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1 package of Trader Joe’s portobello ravioli or other ravioli of your choice
* To roast butternut squash, I follow Ina Garten’s recipe. You may also buy pre-sliced butternut squash and follow the rest of the recipe.
Cook portobello ravioli separately, according to instructions. In a separate pan, saute the garlic in the butter/olive oil mixture. When garlic is fragrant, add sage leaves. Cook 2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and cook an additional 3 minutes. Remove ravioli from pot, put on plate, and spoon sauce on top.
This yields about 4 hearty side dish servings or 2 large main dish servings.
