Fresh Pasta with Brown Butter and Sage -- The Kind That Lets the Pasta Be the Point

A week of settling into the year. The wedding is now four and a half months away, which is close enough to feel real and far enough that I'm not panicking, which is the optimal window. Meghan and I worked through the seating chart on Tuesday night via speakerphone while I made dinner. The seating chart is a political document — every Donovan family gathering requires careful spatial management of various relatives who have various histories with each other, and the wedding will have approximately a hundred and ten people in a room.

At work I have a new patient — a forty-seven-year-old woman named Patricia, breast cancer, second line of treatment — who told me on intake that she was a home cook. A real one, with notebooks of recipes and homemade pasta and herbs on the windowsill. "I haven't been able to cook since the first round," she told me. "The smells are wrong. Everything smells wrong." This happens with chemo — the sense of smell becomes corrupted and food loses meaning and pleasure loses one of its primary delivery mechanisms. I told her I was a home cook too. She said, "Then you know." I said, "I know." We were not talking about food anymore, but we were.

I made fresh pasta this week — hand-rolled, because it was cold and I had the afternoon. Egg yolks, flour, a little oil. The dough came together slowly and then suddenly all at once. I served it with a simple butter and sage sauce, the kind that lets the pasta be the point. I thought about Patricia. I hope her smells come back.

The conversation with Patricia stayed with me all week — the particular grief of losing food as a language, of having the smells go wrong. I wanted to make something that was purely about texture and care and the act of making itself, something where the whole point is your hands in dough on a cold afternoon. Fresh pasta is that, for me: slow and then sudden, like most things worth doing. Here’s how I made it.

Fresh Pasta with Brown Butter and Sage

Prep Time: 45 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 55 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 whole large egg
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2–3 tablespoons water, as needed
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 12–15 fresh sage leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Kosher salt, for pasta water
• Freshly grated Parmesan, to finish

Instructions

1. Make the dough. Mound the flour on a clean work surface and make a well in the center. Add the egg yolks, whole egg, olive oil, and salt to the well. Using a fork, beat the eggs gently, then gradually incorporate flour from the inner walls of the well. Once a shaggy dough forms, knead by hand for 8–10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Add water one teaspoon at a time only if the dough feels dry. It will come together slowly, then all at once.
2. Rest the dough. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. This relaxes the gluten and makes rolling easier.
3. Roll the pasta. Divide the dough into four portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion as thin as you can—roughly 1/16 inch or thinner. Dust generously with flour, then loosely fold and cut into 1/2-inch-wide ribbons (pappardelle-style) or thinner strips for tagliatelle. Shake out the ribbons and set aside on a floured surface.
4. Boil the pasta. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and salt it generously. Add the fresh pasta and cook for 2–3 minutes, until just tender. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water before draining.
5. Make the brown butter and sage sauce. While the pasta cooks, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Let it cook, swirling occasionally, until the foam subsides and the butter turns a deep golden amber and smells nutty, about 4–5 minutes. Add the sage leaves—they will crisp within 30 seconds. Remove from heat immediately to stop cooking.
6. Finish the pasta. Add the drained pasta directly to the skillet. Toss gently to coat, adding a splash of reserved pasta water to bring the sauce together into a light gloss. Season with black pepper and taste for salt.
7. Serve. Plate immediately and finish with freshly grated Parmesan. Eat while it’s hot.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 420 | Protein: 11g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 46g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 310mg