Sage and Walnut Pasta Nada

By Dwight Garner

Updated June 14, 2024

Sage and Walnut Pasta Nada
Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne.
Total Time
30 minutes
Prep Time
5 minutes
Cook Time
25 minutes
Rating
5(388)
Comments
Read comments

Earthy, elegant and possessed of a Zen-restraint, this is an ideal — perhaps the ideal — last-second, I-can’t-cope-with-the-stress recipe. It even works for dinner parties. Everyone will like it and have thirds. Serve with a salad and a baguette. Crack a few good chocolate bars into pieces on a plate for dessert. Keep an eye on the walnuts while you are roasting them in the oven. They go from golden to burnt in seconds. This meal is worthy of nearly any bottle of red wine.

Featured in: Pasta Nada: The Culinary Art of Making Something From Nothing

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: Give recipes to anyone

    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.

    Subscribe

  • Share this recipe

  • Print this recipe

Advertisement

Ingredients

Yield:As many servings as you want
  • Pasta
  • Salt
  • Olive Oil
  • Walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
  • Fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
  • Freshly grated Parmesan
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Cook the pasta in salted water until just tender and, before draining, save some of the cooking liquid.

  2. Step 2

    Toss the drained pasta with olive oil and a splash of pasta water to coat. Salt to taste. Serve scattered with walnuts, sage and a generous amount of Parmesan.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Comment on this recipe and see it here.

Ratings

5 out of 5
388 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Comments

Michaelangelo Allocca

Absolutely no need to toast the nuts in the oven. Toast them in a saute pan on the stove (also easier to keep an eye on them that way, to make sure they don't burn). Remove them from the pan when done, and replace them with the olive oil and sage you're going to toss with the pasta, saute a bit or just let them absorb the remaining heat from the toasting -- scrape out with a rubber spatula into the pasta when it's done, rinse out the pan with the cooking water you're going to add back in.

Tina

I love this dish!!! When I have made it in the past, I saute the sage leaves in butter , and then proceed as in this recipe . I call it Sage Brown Butter pasta.

Pat

What amount of walnuts and sage would you use for a pound of pasta?

DJ

I followed some suggestions, toasting the walnuts in a cast iron skillet and then frying the sage in olive oil using the residual heat from the pan. This was quick and easy but I thought it came out tasting flat - too floral, bitterer than I'd like and just missing a certain something. I may try again, maybe using some lemon zest or perhaps adding some egg to make a carbonara, maybe throw in some prosciutto. Or maybe fry up some anchovies with garlic. Or some combination of the above.

Daniela

This sounds like it would be delicious using spaghetti squash and adding a little red pepper flake to the finished dish. Change nothing else.

Donna D

What’s a good alternative to walnuts for someone can’t eat them?

Private comments are only visible to you.

Recipe Tags

or to save this recipe.