Sage

Sage is an interesting herb. I think of it as a dry aroma, with a resinous quality, as opposed to smells like cinnamon that have a sweetness to their smell. I know that I am mixing up the language of taste sensations with smell sensations, but I think we can chart smells on a graph with sweet (or floral/fruity) on one end and dry (resinous) on the other. Then on the Y axis, perhaps we can chart minerally and organic. This is an embryonic system, and one with many errors, but it will due for now. A system of olfactory classification needs to be developed, and it needs to be independent of too much reference to concrete smells.

Sage tends towards the dry. If a dish I were cooking had too much sage, I would temper it with a sweet spice, like cinnamon. Sage is a naturally friend of pork, and I can only imagine what the flesh of sage-fed pigs would taste like.

A simple pork dish is to tuck sage and garlic cloves into a pork roast (round is fine, but loin is especially nice), and rub the roast with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Brown the roast in hot butter, and add a half cup of white vermouth and a splash of balsamic vinegar and a few more sage leaves. Cover the pan and cook the pork over low heat. When it is cooked, remove the pork and cover with foil, and reduce the pan juices to a good syrup. Strain and whisk in a few tablespoons of softened butter. Salt and pepper to taste and serve over the sliced pork. The leftover sage sauce can go in polpette di lesso.

I generally serve this with roasted potatoes and short braised lacinato kale.