Erica De Mane

Still Life with Fish, by Pablo Picasso.

Recipe below: Butter-Sautéed Cod with Capers and Sage

Sage is a classy herb, elegant but a bit difficult. It comes in many varieties, all with subtle color variations—gray green, blue green, khaki, army green, sometimes with soft striping. Nothing too flashy. Common culinary sage is deep olive, with a thickish leaf, a velvety texture, and a pattern on the leaf that reminds me a little of the surface of my tongue. The aroma is strong even without your ripping into it. There’s a camphor smell there, which is not uncommon for a member of the mint family. But when gently heated, sage opens up with a pungent sweetness. I love this herb, and I often feature it as a primary flavor, but you really don’t want to use too much. And please don’t even think about the acrid dried stuff. A mere pinch of that will ruin your dish.

Sage never used to be something I’d experiment with much. Somehow it has figured in my head as regally inflexible. It’s musky, with an almost non-food smell, but it’s also warming and familiar to Italian cooks. It belongs in saltimbocca, gnocchi, or ricotta ravioli with sage butter, or in pasta or risotto with butternut squash or pumpkin. My mother added sage to pasta e fagioli. I do that. I tasted cannellini bean salad in Tuscany that contained sage and celery, and I make that that way now. I’ve learned to fry sage leaves and scatter them over orecchiette with sausage. I roast little potatoes and add fresh sage at the end so that it’ll crisp up but not burn (burnt sage can be very bitter). These are all fairly traditional Italian ways with sage.

Fish with sage can be tricky. I ate a superb trout cooked with sage in Norcia, Umbria, many years back, and it has stuck in my culinary head. I’ve tried sage with other fish and found out two things. First, it works best with less saline types of fish, river fish for sure but also mild white ocean fish, such as the cod I’ve chosen here. Second, and I think this is important, butter seems to be a key to sage’s success with fish. It suavely bridges the two ingredients, creating a mellow zone that equals deliciousness. To my palate, olive oil just can’t produce the same effect.

For this recipe, I’m using the time-honored restaurant technique of sautéing and basting a fish in butter until just cooked through. I add flavorings at different points, allowing the hot butter and fish juices to mingle with my sage, shallot, garlic, and lemon, producing a quick but remarkably rich pan sauce.

The perfect pan for this recipe is my 10-inch All-Clad sauté pan. It fits two fish fillets nicely, with enough extra room for basting, and it’s light enough for easy tilting.

(Serves 2)

2 approximately 1-inch-thick cod fillets (about 7 ounces each), skinned
Salt
Black pepper
The grated zest and juice from 1 small lemon
A few big scrapings of nutmeg
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 shallot, minced
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
¼ cup salt-packed Sicilian capers, soaked, rinsed, and dried
8 sage leaves, cut down the middle lengthwise

Season the  fillets on both sides with salt, black pepper, the lemon zest, and the nutmeg.

In a medium-size sauté pan, heat the butter over medium flame. When the butter has melted and is starting to foam, add the shallot, and let it soften for a few seconds. Now add the fish, presentation side down. Without moving the fish around at all, tilt the pan toward you, and spoon the butter over the fish. Continue spooning the butter over the top of the fish until you see the bottom edges of the fish start to turn golden and it’s easy to move around without sticking, about 3 minutes. Now give the fillets a flip. Add the garlic, the capers, and the sage, and start basting again. Lower the heat so the fish can cook through, continuing to baste all the while. This will probably take about another 2 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish.The butter will likely turn a bit golden, but that is a good thing. (Note:  If your fillets are thicker than an inch, you might need to cover the pan for a minute or so after you give it a flip so you retain some moisture, allowing  the fish to cook through without the butter burning). When the fillets are just tender (starting to flake a bit but still holding their shape), use a slotted spatula to place them on warmed serving plates. Squeeze a little lemon juice over them, and then spoon on some buttery caper-sage sauce from the pan, topping with a pinch of salt and a grinding of fresh pepper.

I like to place the fish on a bed of escarole sautéed with olive oil and a little garlic, but it’s delicious just on its own, too.