a bit of sage-ly advice

i know that i made this a while back (ie during the halloween party) but i realized that i never actually wrote about how it was made and what i learnt and have since been applying to the recipes i've been making lately.

nikki and sarah had been making fresh butternut squash ravioli all afternoon while i was dealing with the chicken and cabbage braise, when the time for saucing and plating the ravioli came around. i knew in theory (and of course via marcella's cooking bible) how to make the sage sauce that was so called for in terms of the restaurant's version and even by a similar recipe in the book. the idea of flavouring oil is not foreign to me so i thought "why not, i can totally do this" so, off i went.

i was impatient so i heated the pan quickly on high and turned it down to medium as called for by the recipe. next, in went a hunck of butter that melted faster than i was ready for and started to caramalize before i even had a chance to harvest the sage from my pot. luckily, my friend lauren came to the rescue and grabed me a bunch that i quickly threw into the pan of heated butter. oops... my bad. i didn't burn instantly, but it didn't do that lovely poof-ing action that i saw jaime oliver's sage do just that morning on tv. (i swear, the world of television is magical. even the worst of foods can look good! gah... please transfer some of that magic to my residence kitchen... please???)

so the sage leaves were now past the golden brown colour and verging on deep caramel (which i know means that the oil/pan are too hot). "crap! i still need to throw in the pecans!" so i toss them in. sizzle sizzle sizzle. "crap! stop the heat, victoria! before everything turns a not so pleasant deep.... black!?!" says my little inner voice so, what do i do? take the boiled ravioli and try and save it.

i throw in the cooked ravioli and plate it, crumble the goat cheese and serve.

result: yum.

now, whether or not it was the pasta (which i think it was) or the combination of sauce and pasta and cheese, i'm not sure, but all i know is that the ravioli were the first thing to go and everyone was very happy.

so, what did i learn?
- don't be impatient. let the pan heat slowly and you will be well rewarded.
- have all ingredients on hand BEFORE starting, especially if you're anything like me and a novice at having 2-3 different new dishes on the stove happening at once
- have great friends around when cooking. it just makes preparing and then eating the food that much more enjoyable.

so no, i didn't master this recipe, but i'm determined to get it right so day within the next 7 months (for that's all that i have left!!!!!!!) with what i've learnt, i've now infused olive oil with rosemary and it turned out fabulously. so world, look out. oil infusions are coming in!!!!!

count: 18 down, 501 to go

later guys!