"What can we sustitute for sage?"

This is the sage bush that has been growing next to the back step for the past six years,  It has really pretty purple flowers and smells good.  As it turns out, we don't cook with sage much.  So when my husband calls from the kitchen, I go tearing out there to finally be able to go out the back door and cut fresh herbs.  It's a gardener-cooks dream.  

We needed the sage for the tatsoi recipe.  Tatsoi is an Asian green and it came in the CSA box this week.  When we looked up what to do with it, the following recipe came up over and over.

Browned Butter Pasta with Tatsoi

Your pasta of choice, preferably curved or with ridges
1/2 stick unsalted butter
Salt and pepper
Leaves of 2 to 3 bunches of tatsoi, rinsed
1/2 cup chopped sage
Freshly grated parmesan
Lemon wedges, optional

Cook pasta to al dente in salted water. When pasta is almost done done, melt butter in a skillet. Swirl the butter in the pan as it foams. (At this point, remove pasta from the heat and drain well in a colander.) When butter begins to brown, toss in pasta and mix to coat with butter. Salt and pepper to taste. Add tatsoi and sage and cook until slightly wilted, about 1 to 2 minutes. Plate and serve immediately with grated Parmesan and lemon wedges on the side. 

The kid said it was "okay" and served herself about  8 pieces of pasta.   We wished that we had more tatsoi.  That's the farmer's only complaint about the CSA.  You get a list of what is coming, but you really don't know how much of each item.  Asparagus was on the list this week, but did not come.  We got summer squash instead.  So much for the asparagus with ham and Swiss recipe.  Now we know that we make a menu, but don't shop until after the box comes, not before.

On a side note, guess which part of this dinner is organic?  How do they make that cheese glow that orange?

Happy cooking!