An easy and quick 10 minute sage butter. A delicious foamy and nutty browned butter with crispy sage leaves for an addictive pasta sauce.
Recipe by Emilie Pullar on June 27, 2023
Cook time: PT10M
Rating
5 stars (15 reviews)
Keywords
brown butter sauce, sage butter
Ingredients
150 g butter (cubed (see notes))
20 sage leaves (see notes)
Salt to taste if using unsalted butter
Categories
Butter Sauces
Cuisine
Italian
Steps
Make sure you check out my notes and photos above, it's all useful info I promise! There is a handy video below too.
Melt the butter in a frypan over medium heat and when it just starts to sizzle, throw your sage leaves in.
Continue cooking the butter, swirling the pan so it cooks evenly.
The butter will create big bubbles and crackle quite loudly. Feel free to turn the heat down if you think it is cooking too quickly.
The bubbles and noise will subside and then it will start to foam on the top.
Keep swirling the pan so you can see what is going on under the foam. It will take about 5 minutes.
We are looking for the specks on the bottom to be brown NOT black. Keep in mind it will continue to cook when you take it off the heat.
As soon as you see the specks at the bottom turn brown, take it off the heat and serve immediately.
I like to gently spoon the butter over the pasta and then skim the foam off the top of the pan to layer onto the pasta too. It's all about those foamy bubbles!
Reviews
K on 2025-08-09 (5 stars): Girll you saved our dinner
Barbara on 2025-04-09 (5 stars): I love brown butter with sage: question I have really good truffle oil and wondered what you thought of adding some in after growing the butter?
Mitch on 2025-03-25 (5 stars): So very glad this recipe of yours was the very first one that popped up when I was looking for the way to make brown butter. Made it today just as you recommended- and it turned out phenomenal! The crispy sage leaves were amazing. Added just a tiny bit of crushed rosemary and some fresh mushrooms (next time will add morel mushrooms!) - and served it over braised beef/red wine raviolis. Absolute perfection!
Celine on 2024-12-29 (5 stars): Easy to master with few ingrédients, yet sooooo delicious! My go to when I don’t have much time. Thanks a lot for the inspiration!
Tracey on 2024-12-22 (5 stars): Absolutely delicious thank you
Dana on 2024-10-31 (5 stars): I'm a chef, was looking for something different for dinner tonight and came across this recipe. It was so perfect! And so incredibly easy to make. I did add parmesan after it was plated. I added Cashews too, but last minute, to the butter so they didn't burn (they burn easy). The sage leaves were so crispy. I even made a TikTok about this recipe! @recipesbymamad - and gave credit to this article. I sent pics to my mom and BFF- they both want me to make it for them. My 18 year old son went crazy for this too! Great dish!
Kay on 2024-09-15 (5 stars): De-lish!!! From garden to table in a couple minutes. Thank you!
Tina on 2024-09-06 (5 stars): I’ve made brown butter before, but has never turned out as delicious as your recipe. It was easy to follow and it came out perfect!! Thanks for the extra tips.
Kae on 2024-09-04 (5 stars): Perfect! The butter did go from sizzle to brown very quickly so watching over it is an imperative. LOVED it over sweet corn goat cheese local pasta.
Kim George on 2024-05-18 (5 stars): This was the best recipe for burnt brown butter sage sauce I have tried. And I’ve tried a few. The instructions were spot on and me and my husband absolutely loved the results. Fantastic!!!
