May 20, 2010
45 Things To Do With Fresh Sage
I recently remarked to a sympathetic friend how difficult it is to buy fresh sage around here. Sage isn't used intensively in French cuisine, so it's not part of the classic range of fresh herbs sold at produce shops or at the green market. But I enjoy its flavor very much, so I decided I would try and find seeds to grow my own.
Only days later, I walked past the sidewalk display of Etablissements Lion on my way home, and noticed that they sold potted sage plants that looked exceptionally healthy. I couldn't resist; I chose the most beautiful one and adopted it.
It now rooms with our blooming strawberry plants on the bathroom window sill, but it is so bushy I thought I'd better start thinking of ideas to put it to good use. And I did what any modern person would do: I turned to twitter and asked, "What do you like to do with sage?"
The response was multicolored and inspired, and I thought it would be a pity not to share it with you. Surely there are other owners of expansive sage plants who would benefit. So here's a compilation of the suggestions I collected -- my sincere thanks go to the twitterers who kindly contributed their ideas.
Sage pairings:
- Sage + eggs (i.e. in an omelette)
- Sage + chicken (i.e. roast chicken with sage and lemon inside the cavity)
- Sage + lamb (i.e. in lamb burger patties)
- Sage + fried liver + croutons
- Sage + polenta
- Sage + onion (i.e. in stuffing)
- Sage + white beans (i.e. in white bean hummous or an open sandwich)
- Sage + apple
- Sage + pineapple
- Sage + roasted peanuts
Sage uses:
- Sage butter on gnocchi
- Sage butter on ravioli, especially pumpkin ravioli
- Sage butter on trout
- Sage olive oil with pasta and parmesan
- Put some leaves into pesto with other herbs.
- Add sage to duck sausage.
- Add sage to bean dishes.
- Infuse honey with sage.
- Use with parsley, rosemary and thyme in chicken risotti and soups.
- Add along with fresh parsley, basil, thyme, and rosemary to tomato sauces.
- Deep-fry the leaves and serve as an appetizer, or use as a garnish for poultry, meat dishes, or pasta.
Recipe ideas:
- Sandwich an anchovy between two leaves, batter and fry for great antipasto.
- Feta, prosciutto and sage involtini
- Sage on asparagus with shaved pecorino
- Lay two sage leaves over a long slice of sweet potato and wrap with a slice of prosciutto. Roast for 20 minutes or so with some olive oil (credit to Mark Bittman).
- Italian bread and cabbage soup with sage butter
- Roast butternut squash on a thick bed of it.
- Sage and goats' cheese gnocchi
- Sweet potato gnocchi with chestnuts and fried sage
- Put leaves on fish, wrap in prosciutto and sear in clarified butter and olive oil; finish in the oven.
- Take half a chicken breast, place 2 or 3 sage leaves on top, wrap in Parma ham, pack in foil, bake at 180°C (360°F). Open top side of package, pour in some dry white wine, and leave open in oven for 20 more minutes or until done.
- Wrap a flattened chicken thigh in prosciutto with a leaf of sage and pan-cook.
- Pan-fry chicken breasts, add sage, red onion, lemon & crème fraîche.
- Sauté chicken livers with shallots and sage, season, then add a little cream. Toss through pappardelle.
- Sauté lamb chops with a sage leaf on each side.
- Saltimboca (veal, sage and prosciutto)
- Pork, sage and apple burgers
- Mold around a piece of pork sausage (out of casing), batter and fry.
- Sage and cheddar biscuits or pumpkin sage biscuits
- Sage ice cream
- Sage panna cotta
Other uses:
- Freeze in ice cubes for summer drinks.
- Go native and use the dry sage leftovers to purify your kitchen from evil spirits (see smudge sticks).
- Sage tea is a great remedy for sore throat.
- Sage plants give the most beautiful blooms!
 Watercress and Fresh Sage Soup |
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Wow, that sage/sweet potato/prosciutto/olive oil combo sounds wonderful. Thanks for all these great ideas - reminds me of perusing the Flavor Bible!
I love sage because it's perennial. There's no doubt that it will be in my garden every year.
The last time I grew fresh sage it ripened before Thanksgiving season, so I was always looking for ways to use it. I sure could've used this guide! :)
Great list! It's a wonderful purifier.
I remember my Parisian friend's midwife recommending she drink sage tea to prepare her for child birth. She said it would relax her abdominal muscles. (she cautioned her not to drink this tea until she approached her due date.)
Sage with pork is incredible. I use a powdered sage (I get it in the States) and pat in on pork chops before frying. I adore that flavor. I guess you could just press a leaf or two of sage to each side of a pork chop and fry it that way too.
This is perfect! I was looking at all the sage coming up in the garden yesterday and wondering what I could do with it all.
I use dried sage as an important seasoning in the pork sausage gravy I make to serve with baking powder biscuits. It is one of my husband's favorite dishes!
I discovered, over an embarrassing dinner with guests, that there are "sage lovers" and "sage haters," and hardly anyone in between. I happen to love fresh sage so it never occurred to me that there might be someone (or several someones) who passionately didn't. But, after reading your "45 things to do with fresh sage," I'm sticking with sage and finding sage lovers to invite to dinner! I really enjoyed your sweet potato gnocchi recipe. I make a similar dish using butternut squash.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I have tons of sage growing....but never know what to do with it!
Take a slice of bread, pat on some shredded cheese and press a sage leaf on top and broil for extra flavorful cheese toasts.
Butter sage sauce is my favorite on any pasta, but it's particularly great with ravioli and gnocchi.
I associate sage with two things:
1) Stuffing at Thanksgiving
2) The burning of it during sacred American Indian ceremonies
Great ideas...Our sage plant is growing quick...these will come in handy soon.
Great suggestions. I love sage ice cream. Sage panna cotta would be fantastic too.
stuff a few leaves in a bottle of rose in the fridge overnight...yum!
Maybe someone already said this but in a hurry here...I get heaps from a friend's garden. I use it for Italian dishes but inevitably there's more than I need. If I can't hand it off, I put it in bouquets alone or with flowers & other herbs. It's dusty/green (well, sage) color sets off both pastels & brights very well.
ciao
I recently made a springtime mushroom and asparagus soup, and added a little bit of chopped sage, which brought out the flavors beautifully!
oh my, all of those sound so good!
wondering if i should go and pick up a sage plant just so i can try all of the ideas mentioned.
Sage blossoms are also edible and taste delicately spicy. They make lovely garnish on any dish that uses the leaves. Pineapple sage blossoms are sweet and good in fruit salads and iced tea.
Hummingbirds and bees love sage blossoms, too.
Other herb blossoms work similarly; they usually taste like a lighter and more floral version of the leaves.
Great post! I have an abundance of fresh sage at my house, plus fond memories of my grandmother growing it when I was a kid.
Thanks for all the great ideas. I have only ever put sage in burnt butter.
My sage here in Atlanta, GA finished blooming about 3 weeks ago. New growth; it is at least 4 foot tall and takes up about the same amount of space as a bath tub. All from a single plant that I bought 4 years ago. Was pretty even at 14ºF which is rare for our town.
How about fresh Brussels sprouts with brown butter and sage? Sage Shortbread? A bouquet in the midst of winter smells so good in the kitchen. Thrown a handful of leaves in the fireplace.
I love sage! Ok, I'm a bit late with favourite uses for it (not hip with twitter yet) but butternut squash risotto with parmesan and sage is amazing. A great autumn dish.
I've got a massive sage plant in my garden that's just about to flower - really pretty little purple flowers. I wonder if you can eat those too?
Make a sage and walnut pesto. It's heavenly on pasta, but also just spread on good bread. Or on roasted veggies.
*salivates a bit*
Thankyou! I just planted some sage in our garden, and I love the plant and the flavour, but didn't have an extensive list of things to make with it.
I'll be putting this list in my cooking notebook.
I love fresh sage but always struggle for ideas - have loved it in pumpkin risotto, in parsnip, chestnut and cranberry nut roast and in onion and cheese muffins. I think I love the idea of the gnocchi and chestnuts and the white bean puree above - even have some in the fridge that needs using soon!!!!
Hello !
Thanks for those ideas. Dried sage is not so popular in Polish cooking. I can say that the most popular use of this herb in my country is to make "tisane" and rinse your throat, if you have problems with your gums:).
I am quite surprised that you have problems with buying it fresh; in my neighborhood it is almost always available at food market at Blvd Raspail and in Le Bon Marche, too.
I discovered that it tastes quite ok, slightly grilled and served with sweet potatoes chips and cashew nuts. Have a nice afternoon.
I know that turkey isn't one of the meats commonly eaten in Europe, but sage pairs better with turkey than with chicken in my opinion. Turkey sausage patties are really good with sage in them. For thanksgiving my mother and I stick a few cloves of garlic, an onion chopped in half, and a huge bouquet of sage in the turkey for a really savory fragrant bird. I don't even fish that out for the traditional Black Friday turkey soup.
Thanks for bringing back so many sweet memories! Sage is one of the favourite herbs in Italy. Almost every house has an overgrown sage bush in the garden. The most delicious way to use it, if you are a sage lover, is to fry it: use whatever batter you have at hand, dip a few leaves in it, and fry it alongside whatever else you are frying.
Another of my favourite combinations, coming from Valtellina, is pizzoccheri, a buckwheat tagliatelle, boiled with cabbage and potatoes, and served with chunks of melting cheese ('bitto' is the original one), and plenty of sage and garlic fried in butter. Hearthy but delicious.
Giadi diLaurentis has a lovely recipe for a summer aperitif that uses sage. One adds to a bottle of decent-to-good-quality rose wine (sorry to omit the accent on the e) the zest of a lemon and 6 large sage leaves that have been gently crushed. This is left overnight to steep, then decanted and chilled. It's quite refreshing and unusual.
This is a very welcome post, as we are buried under our sage BUSH! The best recipe I have found is this one.
I only use sage in the pesto and the flavor is a lot more subtle than one would think. I would even go as far to say this has been the best recipe I have tried lately.
Thanks so much for the additional ideas, everyone, love them all. But now I'm going to have to compile them into a volume 2 and this might never end! :)
Nothing to do with it's use as food, but if you rub your teeth with a sage leaf it feels better than a brushing! No idea why, but try it :)
I grow lots of sage in my garden and it's one of the herbs that makes it out of the herb bed. The flowers will be out in the next few days and it really does look beautiful. The bees just love it. So worth growing for it's looks as well as to cook with.
Thanks as well for the list, I have lots and this has got me thinking. Especially like the idea of using sage in drinks.
Thank you so much for this! I have a HUGE sage bush and love the flavor but was getting sick of roasted chickens. This is just great!
Sage is lovely with mushrooms too. One of my favorite combinations is to saute mushrooms with fresh sage and lemon zest, and use as a filling for crepe.
Sage also goes well with lentils (we add chopped pecans for added protein), mix with diced onion, rolled oats, milk & eggs, and bake in a casserole dish until firm & crusty on top....
Out here in Arizona, we have several uses that I have not seen discussed here; the Navajo taught me and we gather it here wild, called broad-leaf sage.
Down here on the ranch I have found a small leaf version and plan to try it.
What I know about it is that it can cure GI problems, my first learning, and that it helps purify meat when cooking. It can also be smoked with tobacco or other herbs and can help with lung issues.
And, of course, it is the magic medicine for ceremonies, especially the sweat lodge.
You all got me craving to make a cheddar soup with sage. Go figure.
My Comanche friend, who traded with the Navajo, told me that their out houses were not odorous, although they ate mutton.
Very convincing argument for me. Now I will make sure I grill with mesquite and sage. And Arizona range Angus beef, which we raise and love.
A sage leaf is supposed to be good for brightening one's teeth. I have used sage tea medicinally as a gargle which cured a persistent canker sore in my throat almost overnight. The great side benefit was that by drinking nearly two cups of sage tea for gargling, my mind was incredibly sharp the next day! And I remembered that when googling about the sage tea gargle for mouths sores, the BBC had a recent report that scientists had found that sage is full of acetylcholine--something Alzheimer's patients lack. Sage has been an herbal remedy for memory for hundreds of years. Now science is proving why. By the way, I used Berggarten variety of sage which is more potent than the culinary sage.
Sage tea, apart from the uses mentioned above, is GREAT for ones memory. Have at least 2-3 cups a day if you're having memory problems.
LOVE sage. Many favorites, including with pumpkin ravioli, but I use olive oil instead of butter (vegan here).
Careful eating the flowers, they're delicious, but if you overdo it, they're also reported to be psychedelic (not that it's a bad thing).
Thanks for these tips! I started some sage plants from seeds this spring, but I have never really used sage in cooking before.
Sage infusion can be used as such as a face toner for greasy, acne prone or aged skin. It also has a darkening effect on hair, so if you rinse your hair with sage infusion, or add a bit to a shampoo or conditioner, it will enhance the hairs dark colors.
Some great recipes Clotilde! Some fabulous additions everyone, can't wait to try them :-)
My two favorite uses for sage are: 1. make a sage brown butter and pour it over roasted butternut squash and 2. heat maple syrup over medium heat with some fresh chopped sage, take the leaves out and use the syrup on pumpkin pancakes (yum)! Oh and sage ice cream is delicious.
Just bought pineapple sage! It smells absolutely wonderful, sage + fresh pineapple. I plan to rub a pork roast with a paste made of olive oil + that special sage+ sea salt and then cook the whole thing very slowly (something like 2 hours) in the oven, until it's golden and pure melt-in-your-mouth heaven...!
Sage pesto.
I grow sage as well and my favorite recipe is a beverage that is both beautiful to look at as well as taste and be refreshed. I use freshly picked sage leaves still on the stems-sometimes with the blossoms. I place them in a pretty clear glass pitcher. I add thinly sliced lemons and thinly sliced "hot house" cucumber and chilled Kangen water(if that is not available, make sure it's not tap water, and filtered well). Add ice and enjoy. This is always a hit and will WOW enveryone!
I love sage. I have a potted herb garden on my deck that includes common, tri-color, lemon variegated, and purple sage plants. I also have several pots of honeydew melon sage (it's beautiful and smells divine) near the hummingbird feeder because it's supposed to attract them. The bees seem to like it, too.
I'll have to try some of your ideas because it looks like I'm going to have a bumper crop of sage.
Love sage, thanks for all the ideas. I grow a lot of herbs in Florida and it is one of the few I can carry thru the terrible heat with some care. Good luck to your growing season.
my favorite thing to do with sage is bake Apricot, Cornmeal, and Sage Cookies.
I do not really like sage flavor but I suspect it is loaded with antioxidants with many health benefits.
C-
Try a sage pesto, under the skin for a roast chicken. Really delish!
Like someone mentioned earlier a sage bread stuffing for pork chops or loin is nice. A twist is to make a savory bread pudding with sage.
Mine pretty much grew as a weed in my front garden - do be careful to prune it lots. I've come to love fried sage leaves which make a fantastic Italian aperitif - also very nice as a garnish for roast chicken or soup...or as you suggest with gnocci
Hi there. I am from Japan and Japanese people don't use sage much either so this is s great posting. Now I feel like I know what to do with sage. Thank you!
I especially love sage with butternut squash! But I really, really want to try it in combination with apple now. And eggs? Oh my!
Sage is a great herb to add to the delicate flavors of veal. Simply add 3 fresh leaves to each veal steak and press down. Then place a thin slice of pruscutio over the sage and press down. Then panfry the meat sage side down in melted butter. This will only take a few minutes on each side. Remove the meet and allow to rest. Then continue to heat pan juices and add a couple of tablespoons of good quality marsala liquor to the pan...let this simmer to burn off the alcohol and then serve over the vealo. This is a very yummy and very simple dish. Serve with fresh beans or a green salad. Bon appetite!
sage pie ... of course!
Don't know the name, but a fantastic cocktail is gin and fresh squeezed grapefruit juice topped with fresh sage leaves.
Lamb kidneys
Sage
Bacon
Charcoal or indoor electric grill
Cut kidneys in half lengthwise, trim out fat, and remove outside membrane
Lay at least one large sage leaf along each side of half-kidney
Wrap with one slice of bacon, and keep it wrapped with one or two toothpicks.
Grill fairly slowly until bacon is just crisp outside.
Feast fit for the gods.
Loved sage from the moment I tried a butternut squash soup recipe that was refreshingly not the sweet-cinnamon-maple flavor profile, but rather than the spices, used a healthy bunch of fresh sage leaves pureed in at the end, resulting in a savory sage flavor. Add them sooner to refine the flavor a bit. Soup base, in addition to the squash (butternut and/or kombucha), yam and carrot, onion, celery, broth.
Thanks for this wonderful column, Clotilde!!
I have a sage bush growing in my yard, so I will be sure to refer to this list when I am ready to go. It is a very popular tea in Bulgaria, but they never cook with it... more for me.
What a great resource!
I love fresh greens and herbs.
It's easy to grow your own +_+
I highly recommend the Turkish Poached Eggs with Yogurt and Spicy Sage Butter recipe from orangette's site. Definitely have bread on hand to soak up the amazing yolky/yogurty/sagey goodness!
Sage loves pears. One can do a simple plain sugar+butter roast pear thing with the sage in with the pears in the roast, (they will get a bit crispy)
Gives a lovely flavour to pea and ham soup.
Fresh leaves were also been used for cleaning and polishing teeth in the far long ago.
What a great post! Sage is certainly something I need to incorporate more into my recipes, I’m not sure why I shy away from it so much. This guide will change that. Thanks
A local restaurant serves crisp fried sage leaves on top of spaghetti marinara. It's amazing!
Thanks for sharing these ideas! I have bought a lovely sage plant and except for herbal tea, I was not sure on how to use it...Now I should probably buy one more pot :-)
I love the sage and anchovy appetizer. I want to give that a shot at my next tapas party. I find that Americans are a little afraid of anchovies, but this sounds like a great way to hide them and get people to enjoy them without realizing what they are eating :)
Thanks!
Gabi
All I can say is, keep it in the pot on your sill! I bought a lovely sage plant at my farmers market and decided it might be happier in the garden, and the poor thing was eaten up by a bird in a couple of days. We were both sooo sad (the sage and I)... though I imagine the bird was very happy.
rub your gums with sage leaves for good toothings and sage in warm milk for bedtime soothings
I missed tweeting this but, being a rhubarb lover, you could also pair sage and rhubarb! I made a wonderful compote of the two from an article I found on NPR.
I paired it with cod instead of pork and it worked wonderfully. :)
My father used to grow an abundance of sage and dry it out on huge screens so that we'd have dried sage for tea all year. Sage tea is cleansing and very delicious!
Abolutely wonderful post! Lots of new ideas. I have a new respect for sage and will try it in some of the ways you have suggested. Thanks!!!
I just published a great recipe for Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Sage-Butter Sauce and mentioned your site and wonderful post about sage, for the sage lovers. Merci