You’re right, you’re right. This is an Italian dish, not a French one, and more specifically a Tuscan dish — as I discovered one happy summer when some friends and I wandered down a country lane near Montalcino, past vineyards and noble cypress trees, and happened upon an outdoor trattoria too enticing to resist. There was no menu, only the chef’s selection of the day. When the pasta course arrived — plump cheese ravioli exuding the lusty aroma of sage — we knew that we, too, had arrived at something special.
Raviolis à la sauge / Cheese pasta with sage
This dish is now Parisian as well, and not just because I’ve been making it in my Paris kitchen for the last 20 years. I see it occasionally on bistro menus — hardly surprising, since anyone who has tasted it once will want to try it again and again. If fresh sage is not available where you live, I strongly suggest you invest in a packet of seeds and grow some on your windowsill. It grows easily and hardily. Once established, you will have all the sage you need for the kitchen on a beautiful plant that cloaks itself in purple flowers in the spring. This dish may be served the first course of a large meal or on its own as the main course with a salad on the side.