Butternut Squash Ravioli with Butter-Sage Sauce

One of our favorite tricks is to dress up packaged food with a homemade sauce.  Tonight's dish is a perfect example: store-bought frozen ravioli and a brown butter-sage sauce with prosciutto.  The whole meal took twenty minutes to prepare, and most of that time was spent waiting for the water to boil.

Making brown butter, or beurre noisette, is simple enough: cook butter until it's burnt just enough to taste good.  I started by crisping some sliced prosciutto in a bit of oil, set that aside, and melted about a stick of butter in the pot with some crumbled sage.  I gave it a stir every minute or so until it looked like the photo above.  Then I added some wine and sugar to deglaze (which put out a lot of steam, so be careful), added the ravioli, prosciutto, parsley, pepper, and tossed it to coat.  Kate suggested that we crumble some Amaretti Cookies over the dish, which added a nice crunchy texture.

(Cuisine at Home, Issue 65, October 2007, p 46.)

• 4 servings Pasta, any variety
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 slices Prosciutto, cut into ribbons
• 5 Tbsp unsalted Butter, cubed
• 1-2 tsp dried Sage, crumbled
• 2 Tbsp White Wine
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1/4 C Parsley, chopped
• Black Pepper, ground

1. Cook Pasta according to directions.  Drain and set aside, discarding water.
2. Heat Olive Oil in pot over medium-high.
3. Add Prosciutto, cooking until crisp, about two minutes.  Remove from pot and set aside, leaving as much oil as you can.
4. Reduce heat to medium and add Butter.  Once melted, add Sage and cook until butter is golden brown.
5. Deglaze with Wine and Sugar, scraping up any cooked on bits, about one minute.
6. Add Lemon Juice, Parsley, and Pepper, remove from heat and add Pasta.  Toss to coat.