Primo / main course
Fresh ravioli with sage brown butter
Shop-bought ravioli, but a butter sauce that tastes like a restaurant's.
Fresh ravioli from the chilled aisle is already good; the bluff is in the sauce. Brown butter with sage is ready in five minutes and gives a nutty depth that sounds like hours of work. A Parmesan tuile finishes the plate.
Method
- Cook the ravioli per the pack; lift out gently and keep a little cooking water aside.
- Melt the butter in a wide pan and let it turn golden and nutty; fry the sage briefly until crisp.
- Toss the ravioli through the brown butter with a splash of cooking water until everything glistens.
- Optionally make a Parmesan tuile: scatter grated cheese in a hot pan, let it melt and turn golden, then cool.
- Serve with Parmesan, nuts, lemon zest and the crispy sage.
The bluff
Brown butter + tuile
All the flavour is in colouring the butter well (beurre noisette) — stop the moment it smells nutty. And the plating bluff is the Parmesan tuile: a crisp cheese crisp you stand upright in the plate for height and ‘wow’.
Plating — how to make it look expensive
- Twist the ravioli up loosely with a spoon; don't spread it flat.
- Spoon the glossy butter over so everything shines.
- Crispy sage, nuts and the tuile for texture and height.
What you say at the table
“That brown butter really is that quick, but don't tell anyone.”
Make it complete
Round it off with a simple rocket salad with lemon and Parmesan.
What to drink
A light white wine (Soave) or a glass of prosecco.
Foto via Pexels