pasta week continues

Today's installment: clogging the arteries.



It's pretty much the simplest, quickest pasta sauce in existence, but it might be a little bit difficult to get past the fact that you start it by putting an entire stick of butter into your pan.



But if you figure that a stick of butter is eight tablespoons, and it's for an entire pound of pasta, you're only getting maybe two tablespoons of butter for a pretty big portion. That's not so bad, right? Just figure it's worth it for how easy and good it is. You start by melting that stick of butter over medium heat.



Then drop in 6 or 7 fresh sage leaves and let them sizzle for a minute.



Then drop in a cup of chopped walnuts (unsalted raw). Let those toast in the butter for a couple of minutes. Ladle about 1 cup of pasta water into the sauce and let it simmer and thicken for about 3 minutes. Add the cooked pasta, top with 1 cup of grated parmiggiano-reggiano, toss, and serve.



And hey, if you're still feeling guilty about all that butter after you've eaten it, consider the fact that the walnuts are a source of Omega 3 fatty acids, which are a really good for your cholesterol levels. At the least, they've got to counteract all the saturated fat from the butter, right?

PS. Okay, admittedly, this dish is a little greasy. I think you could easily get away with using only 3/4 stick of butter and it would still work fine for a pound of pasta. Perhaps a purist out there would think I suck for saying that, but this is not the first pasta dish that I found too greasy. So there, not even as unhealthy as you thought.