Giada De Laurentiis’ 4-Ingredient Brown Butter Sauce Turns Frozen Ravioli Into a 5-Star Dinner

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When we’re pressed for time on weeknights, it’s too easy to end up ordering takeout, spending at least twice as much as we would have just getting ingredients at the store. Other times, we have a frozen pizza stuffed in the freezer, or a cup of instant noodles in the pantry, but what about nights when there’s no time and we want to eat well? That’s when we reach for the bag of frozen ravioli. And while it’s tasty enough with a jar of marinara sauce, Giada De Laurentiis‘ (author of Giada’s Italy) 4-ingredient brown butter and sage sauce is almost just as easy, but it turns your last minute meal into a dinner you can be proud of.

De Laurentiis pairs her brown butter sage sauce recipe with homemade ricotta-stuffed ravioli, but if we’re being honest, we usually don’t have the time (or the counterspace) to roll, fill, and cut fresh pasta at home. We keep frozen ravioli and tortellini on hand instead, and you could even pair this buttery sage sauce with store-bought frozen or shelf-stable gnocchi, too.

The sauce is truly so simple to make. You’ll melt butter in a large saucepan until it turns golden and stops foaming. Then, the sage is added. Dried sage leaves will cook to a crisp faster, but fresh works here too. The sage is butter-fried until crispy. During this process, the butter starts to brown, turning nutty and fragrant, while also getting infused with the sage’s herbacious flavor. Just make sure not to let anything burn.

If the sage leaves are cooking too quickly, you can remove them with a slotted spoon and let rest on a paper towel until the butter is browned, then add them back to the sauce. Alternatively, if the butter is browning too quickly, you can remove the pan from heat, stirring constantly to prevent further browning. The good news is that if you do have to start over, the whole process takes less than 10 minutes.

Pair De Laurentiis’ brown butter sage sauce with cooked frozen ravioli, tortellini, or gnocchi. But it’s also delicious drizzled over roasted winter squash or pan-fried chicken breasts, or served with crusty toasted pieces of bread as an appetizer. One thing is for certain — this super fast sauce will add a bit of elegance to pretty much any meal.

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Watch: How to Make Giada De Laurentiis’ Stuffed Lasagna Rolls