h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Long story short, I misread a sign at the supermarket and bought about five times more fresh sage than I could use over Christmas. The rest has been sitting out on the balcony and has dried very nicely.

So what might I do with it? No recipes for herbed bread, please. I've got my own Reinheitsgebot when it comes to the staff of life - the only things that should go into it are water, grain and yeast.

I'm looking purely for recipes that I can make with it, so no suggestion for burning it (or thrashing myself with it , even in a non-pervy way) please. The bunches aren't big enough for that anyway.

It's very tempting to ask if you also have any onions?

Saltimbocca has sage, doesn't it?

I always add sage to my minestrone recipes, Gosho. I will look through my recipes to see if there are any others that benefit from sage....

Saltimbocca... a definite possibility.

I have lots of onions Icy, and that was the reason I bought the sage in the first place (that's the Christmas connection you see ). Some of it will certainly go into more home made Paxo.

Soup is a very useful suggestion.

All good ideas. Keep 'em coming

Butternut squash risotto can take lots of sage, but I always use fresh sage from the garden, so I don't know if dried is as good.

Drying concentrates the flavour so you use about one third the amount, if I remember rightly.

I'm wondering whether it would go well in a nice buttery mash.

Also good in ravioli.

I usually put some sage (and a good pinch of cumin seeds) in chilli con carne. I added it once by accident instead of oregano and decided that I liked it.

Get some pork loin. Slice down middle but not right through, fold open. Put in sage and almonds salt/pepper. Tie up with string along its length.

Dredge in flour.

Sweat some onions in butter in large pan.

Put in pork loin and brown. Then add some white wine and cover. Keep adding wine until pork is cooked through.

Remove pork and leave to rest.

Put some cream into the juices in the pan and simmer til it thickens.

Cut pork into medallions and put on plates. Pour sauce over and sere with greens (mange tout beans etc) and rice or maybe gnocchi.

you'll need fresh floppy sage for saltinbocca, won't you?

We put sage in our potato dumplings. Yum.

Problem with sage it it's very strong.

Having said that, I made some great spiedini at the weekend.

Throw a handful of sage leaves into a dish with some good bacon, cut into 1" chunks, Italian sausages cut into thirds, and cubes of beef fillet. Blitz another 8(ish) sage leaves with 4tbsp EVOO, the juice of a lemon, a couple of garlic cloves and a good grinding of salt and pepper. Chuck the blitz all over the meat and let it marinade for a few hours.

Thread bacon, sage leaves, sausages, beef onto skewers (or stripped rosemary stalks, if you feel posh), chuck into an oiled bakin dish, and throw into an oven on full whack and immediately turn it down to 200C. Roast for 20 minutes. Serve with green leaves of your choice - we had some savoy cabbage with garlic and ginger, but a salad would work just as well.

B

I have some pork loin in the freezer. Thanks Alfster.

I don't mind the strong flavour, B, in fact I quite like the taste of sage, but obviously I don't want to add it to a dish just for its own sake and overpower the other flavours. I might have a crack at your recipe.

If you're still seeking inspiration, you might try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvia_divinorum#Strains

I have Salvia divinorum, it's very pretty. It's strange how many psychoactive plants are freely available.