Penne in Brown Butter Sage Sauce with Asparagus, Brussel Sprouts and Toasted Pine Nuts

Pasta is one of the easiest weekday dinners to make. So, I am constantly trying to make it in different ways incorporating different ingredients in it. I remember at one time, I used to ALWAYS make pasta with a tomato based sauce. Later I graduated to white sauce, which I wasn't too fond of, so I used to mix tomato and alfredo to get a slightly pinkish sauce and was in love with it! But then knowing me, I had to get bored of it sometime or the other and that happened. Then it was the carbonara style pasta for a while and it quickly gave way to pesto. I used both store bought and homemade pesto. The latest craze is brown butter. Well, not craze exactly, I have used only this one type of sauce which I have made two times so far. That's as far as the craze goes as of now. Brown butter or beurre noisette as it is called in French is nothing but butter that has been browned – one step less then making ghee or clarified butter. A few things to keep in mind while making brown butter :

** Use medium heat and keep a close watch on the butter. It can quickly turn from brown to almost black.
** Try to use a stainless steel pan and try not to use a non-stick or black bottomed pan, as it will be hard to notice the color changes.
** Skimming the milk solids on top and/or straining is optional, which is what makes it ghee. It is a lot tastier when you leave it as it is.

Penne in Brown Butter Sage Sauce with Asparagus, Brussel Sprouts and Toasted Pine Nuts

Penne – 2 cups Irish Butter ( you can use regular butter too) – 2-3 tbsp Fresh Sage, chopped – 2 tbsp Brussel Sprouts, cut in half – 1 cup Asparagus, cut into 1” pieces – 1 cup Toasted Pine Nuts – 3 tbsp Goat cheese, crumbled – 1/3 cup Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

In a stainless steel sauce pan, add the butter and heat it on medium heat. Watch carefully for it to turn brown in color. As soon as it does, switch off the heat and add the sage leaves to it and leave it for a while. (Another version of  this sauce calls for adding some vegetable/chicken stock along with the sage and keeping the heat on to medium-low and let it thicken). Meanwhile, cook the pasta in salted water till al dente. Drain and keep aside.

In a larger pan, add the butter with the sage and add the brussel sprouts and asparagus to it. Let the brussel sprouts brown and crunch up a little on the cut side. Add the pasta to this and season with salt and freshly cracked pepper. Add the goat cheese to this and mix well. Finally, add the toasted pine nuts too. Serve hot!