Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce
by Chungah
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The quickest (BEST!) 25 min dinner. With a nutty garlicky brown butter sauce, crispy sage & toasted pecans!
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Why you’ll love this easy ravioli recipe
- It’s all about the brown butter. Fall is in full swing and brown butter takes all of the glory here with the help of some ravioli and all the sage leaves swimming and crisping up in all that toasted brown butter heaven.
- So simple yet so fancy. Thanks to the pillowy, quick cooking ravioli, this dinner comes together in just 25 minutes, start to finish, perfect for weeknight dinners or weekend company (easily dressed up with a salad and crusty bread).
- Flexible, forgiving recipe. This is a great recipe to use up what you have on hand. Swap out the ravioli for tortellini, add in different herbs (ex. thyme or rosemary), skip the pecans, or stir in leftover rotisserie chicken for added protein.
SO WHAT IS BROWN BUTTER?
In a nutshell, brown butter is magical liquid gold, made by gently heating unsalted butter until caramelized into deep golden brown color. The end result is silky, nutty, toasted goodness. Its rich flavors can be used to enhance so many recipes, from both savory to sweet dishes.
How to make ravioli with sage butter sauce
- Cook the ravioli in boiling salted water
- Crisp up the sage leaves in melted butter, setting aside for later
- Stir in all the aromatics – garlic, lemon zest, thyme (or any other fresh herbs) and pecans) – stirring until the butter is golden brown
- Toss with cooked ravioli, lemon juice (to cut down the richness) and season with salt and pepper
- Add your finishing touches with a healthy dusting of freshly grated Parmesan along with the crispy sage leaves and crusty bread
WHAT TO SERVE WITH RAVIOLI
Tools For This Recipe
Large skillet
Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce: Frequently Asked Questions
We recommend using refrigerated ravioli for convenience and quick cooking. But any ravioli should be great here! Choose your favorite filling such as cheese, spinach and ricotta, or butternut squash. Brown butter goes well with everything!
Unsalted butter allows you to add as much salt (or as little) salt in your dish. It allows for more control and consistency.
You can replace unsalted butter with salted butter in a pinch, reducing the amount of salt indicated in the recipe, and adding to taste.
Fresh sage leaves are ideal here as dried sage will not crisp up in the melted butter.
Brown butter, also known as beurre noisette in French, is made by gently cooking unsalted butter until caramelized into deep golden brown color with silky, nutty and toasted flavors.
Walnuts would be a great substitute for the pecans.
Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce
Video
Ingredients
- 2 (9-ounce) packages refrigerated ravioli
- ½ cup unsalted butter, cubed
- ⅓ cup loosely packed fresh sage leaves
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
- ⅓ cup finely chopped pecans
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ½ cup shaved Parmesan
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook ravioli according to package instructions; drain well.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add sage and cook until sage is crispy and butter starts to foam, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer sage to a paper towel-lined plate; set aside.
- Add garlic, lemon zest, thyme and pecans. Cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant and butter is deep golden brown in color, about 2 minutes.
- Stir in ravioli until heated through, about 1-2 minutes.
- Stir in lemon juice; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately with Parmesan and sage.
Equipment
Notes
- Use unsalted butter. Unsalted butter allows you to add as much salt (or as little) salt in your dish. It allows for more control and consistency. You can replace unsalted butter with salted butter in a pinch, reducing the amount of salt indicated in the recipe, and adding to taste.
- Start with cubed butter. Cut the butter into similar-sized cubes. This will allow the butter to brown evenly.
- Use medium heat. Medium heat is ideal, ensuring the butter will cook evenly. If the butter is browning too quickly, turn down the heat as needed. Do not leave the butter unattended as it can burn very quickly.
- Use a light-colored pan. This is best to visualize the butter changing colors from light to dark golden brown. When using a black bottom pan, sometimes you are left guessing the color change, and possibly burning the butter.
- Mix it up. Swap out the ravioli for tortellini, agnolotti or gnocchi, adding roasted butternut squash or crispy pancetta.
Did you make this recipe?
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It’s winter, and I have no fresh sage or thyme growing in my garden. Will dried herbs also work, and if so, what would the ratio be to fresh? Thanks!
I made this last night and it was fabulous. It honestly tasted like something from an upscale Italian restaurant. Most experienced cooks probably know this, but I can’t stress enough the importance of having the herbs, lemon and pecans (I could only find whole, so had to chop them) ready to go BEFORE ever turning on the stove top. The ravioli and the sauce comes together incredibly fast. I followed the recipe exactly, and would suggest doing that at least for the first time. It really was a very special dinner. Thank you Damn Delicious!
I don’t know how you do it! Every time I make a new meal from your site, I think it is the best meal I have ever cooked and this was one was no exception. The balance of the brown butter, sage, and pecans was absolutely perfect. I used spinach ricotta ravioli, which I highly recommend. This meal was so easy to make (truly 25 minutes), and my entire family loved it. I thought I might need a salad to round it out, but it was very filling on its own. Thank you for such a delicious recipe.
Very quick and good. We love butternut squash ravioli. I forgot to squeeze fresh lemon juice over the dish at the end, but it was still very flavorful.
Delish!!! I didn’t change a thing! Thank you!!
Made this last night with spinach and ricotta raviolis. Holy moly. SO YUMMY! Tasted like something I’d order in a restaurant!
OMG! This was excellent. I used butternut squash stuffed gnocchi instead and paired it with pan fried chicken breasts.
Best meal I have ever made
I especially like this recipe for Friday night dinner. We’re too exhausted to go out after the work week and this is absolutely perfect for a delicious and quick dinner, paired with a tossed salad and nice white wine! Love the recipes on this site – they’re all a hit.
Very tasty. I love it more than 5 out of 5.
i have picky kids and didnt tell them there was veg in it thanks damn delicous i love u guys
Love this recipe!! My only problem was that the sauteed sage leaves were so delicious that half of them didn’t make it into the sauce. I plan to plant a second sage plant in my herb bed just for this recipe.
This was something very new for my somewhat picky family – and everyone loved it. I used two different kinds of fresh ravioli from the store. The sage had the most interesting texture and was so good. The pecans were also a great addition. Made exactly as written and was quick/easy to make. Don’t be afraid to try this one!
Great weeknight meal.
My husband is allergic to walnuts and pecans. Can I sub another nut here, because this looks and sounds delicious!
I have seen brown butter sage sauce with Hazelnuts and cranberries for the tartness, vs the pecans and lemon used here. It’s a pretty basic recipe, so you can definitely substitute.
If your husband is allergic to multiple kinds of nuts, I would be concerned that he could be allergic to almost all nuts since theyre in the same family. You may want to try peanuts or steer steer clear of nuts all together. Maybe he’s not allergic to peanuts, since they’re a different family you could try that. There are also lots of grains etc with “nutty” flavors that you could expirament with.
Rest assured even without nuts brown butter sage sauce is still delicious.
My final thoughts: Try roasted Chickpeas, i bet they would would work well. There are tons of grains, beans, and seeds that you could try. You could also try pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, or if you use Butternut squash (one of the suggested additions) also common with this type of sauce, then you could save the seeds and toast them, they are just like pumpkin seeds.
This ravioli recipe was definitely a keeper! Keeping this in my top 5. So easy to make yet tasted like a gourmet meal. Hubby loved this! Made it with the roasted sweet potato recipe. Thank for this o e Chung! Damn delicious foe sure.
I made this last week, and it was an absolute hit with my family. Super yummy!