Christoph's sage and thyme brown butter spaghetti
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Pasta
- 360 g spaghetti rounded
- to taste fine salt, for the pasta water rounded
- 150 ml starchy cooking water, reserve at least 250 ml and use as needed rounded
Brown butter sauce
- 140 g unsalted butter, cut into pieces rounded
- 16 fresh sage leaves, dry and unblemished rounded
- 8 fresh thyme, leaves stripped rounded
- 1 garlic, lightly crushed, optional rounded
- 60 g Parmigiano Reggiano, very finely grated rounded
- 15 ml fresh lemon juice rounded
- to taste black pepper rounded
Method
Method
- Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook until about 2 minutes short of al dente.
- Meanwhile, melt the butter in a light-coloured 30 cm skillet over medium heat. Add the sage leaves in a single layer. Cook for 60 to 90 seconds, turning once, until crisp, then transfer half the leaves to a plate for finishing.
- Add the optional garlic. Continue cooking the butter, swirling often, as it foams and crackles. When the crackling quiets and the milk solids turn amber with a hazelnut aroma, immediately lower the heat. They must be amber, not black. Remove and discard the garlic if used.
- Add the thyme leaves and cook for 15 seconds. Carefully add 100 ml starchy cooking water to arrest the browning. It will bubble forcefully. Swirl until the butter and water begin to emulsify.
- Reserve at least 250 ml pasta water, then transfer the spaghetti to the skillet. Toss over medium-low heat for 1 to 2 minutes, adding more pasta water in 30 ml additions, until the pasta is al dente and the sauce looks creamy rather than oily.
- Remove from the heat. Add the Parmigiano in three additions while tossing continuously, loosening with more cooking water whenever the sauce tightens. Add the lemon juice and black pepper. Taste before adding salt.
- Divide among warm bowls and finish with the reserved crisp sage. Serve at once while the emulsion is fluid.
Ingredient substitutions
- In Germany and Canada, unsalted butter with about 82 percent milk fat behaves predictably. Cultured butter adds tang and may foam differently, so rely on the amber solids and nutty aroma rather than the clock.
- Parmigiano Reggiano gives savoury depth but normally uses animal rennet. For a vegetarian dish in either country, choose an Italian-style hard cheese explicitly labelled with microbial or vegetarian rennet. It may be milder and melt slightly differently.
- Dried herbs do not reproduce the crisp sage leaves or fresh thyme aroma. If fresh thyme is unavailable, use 2 g dried thyme, added only after the butter has browned.
Notes
- A light-coloured pan makes the milk solids visible. Remove the pan from the heat immediately if they approach dark brown because burnt butter cannot be repaired.
- Pasta water converts melted butter into a sauce. Add enough that the spaghetti looks slightly looser in the pan than it should on the plate.
- Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours and use within 2 days. Reheat once in a skillet with a spoonful of water; the herbs will be softer than when freshly made.