# Brown Butter Sauce



## JimCook (Oct 17, 2008)

With almost any dish, the right sauce can take the food to the nextlevel. I have spent a lot of time this year working on sauces for different dishes and while this has ruined many restaurants for me, it has made dinners at home much better. To that end, I have come up with a relatively simple brown butter sauce that works very well for store-bought ravioli (I don't know many people that make their own ravioli) and other pasta. Here's the skinny...


In a small saucepan, add one tablespoon of butter and turn to medium heat. When the butter has melted, add some freshly ground black pepper (I use a couple of twists here and generally more than less, but it's up to your personal preference). Begin to brown the butter, stirring continuously with a fork (put as much of the 'botton' of the fork in contact with the bottom of the pan as possible) or whisk while after the butter has been 'clarified' and starts to brown. 


Once the butter is lightly browned, remove from heat and continue to whisk/stir. Add about 1 teaspoon of dried _grated_ Parmesan cheese (Kraft, etc. - just not shredded). The sauce will foam up at this point - continue to stir/whisk until the foam goes down, then take once clove of pressed garlic and add to sauce. At this point, the sauce should be cool enough not to burn the garlic when it is added. If you add the garlic before this point, it will likely turn brown, hard, and bitter. I use a hand-held garlic press (Pampered Chef) for this. Stir/whisk for a little bit more to homogenize and then serve immediately over your pasta/ravioli of choice.


Enjoy,


- Jim


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## rgecaprock (Oct 17, 2008)

*Wow Jim,*


*What is the flavor of the brown butter? I would think that the solids in the butter would take on a savory taste.*

*Keep posting your recipes....You are right...sauces make a difference.*

*Ramona*


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## JimCook (Oct 17, 2008)

Browned butter ends up having a slightly nutty flavor - it's quite savory and wonderful. It works best when combined with pasta that has cheese in/on it (ravioli, tortellini, etc.), but also can be good over vegetables like green beans or squash. 


If the heat is too high when the butter starts to brown, it will turn black (burnt) rather quickly, so it may be helpful to turn it down at the point where it starts to brown. 


Here are some pictures of the technique from another site: http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Browning-Butter/Detail.aspx


- Jim


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## rgecaprock (Oct 17, 2008)

Thanks, Jim


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