Although many of us are used to the pungent aroma of dried poultry seasoning in holiday cooking, few home cooks have had the pleasure of using fresh sage leaves.
Sage is a perennial plant indigenous to the Mediterranean region. It originally was used as a medicinal herb, and its generic name, salvia, is derived from the Latin salvus, which means “healthy.” It is believed to have healing powers and prolong life.
Sage also helps you digest fatty foods, so it is often used in recipes for pork, goose and duck.
Although there are various types of sage, the most common is garden sage. Its leaves are a grayish green and fairly thick. Clusters of purplish bell-shaped flowers bloom at the tips of the stems. The leaves and stems are covered with a silvery down, known in Arabic as “camel’s tongue.”
Fresh sage leaves are sold in packages or also as living plants, which can be clipped when you need some for cooking. The leaves are extremely strong and should be used sparingly because you don’t want to overpower the flavor of other ingredients.
Although it is commonly used to flavor stuffings, it also is delicious in soups, stews and vegetable dishes. In England, it is used to flavor cheeses. In Italian cooking, sage is used for the classic dishes such as saltimbocca and osso buco.
A good way to use sage is to mince and saute it with cooked pasta, extra-virgin olive oil, some chopped olives and fresh-squeezed lemon. Then crumble a bit of feta cheese over the pasta. Fresh sage is found in the produce section of most markets.
On a recent trip to Greece, I saw sage used to make tea. To make sage tea, add 1 teaspoon dried sage leaves to 1 cup water and boil. Then steep the tea 10 minutes. The people of the islands explained that this tea is used for everything from sore throats to upset stomachs.
