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(274)
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

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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.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
274 user ratings
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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.

Pat

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

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.

Kendra Hotz

I made it with raw, unsalted cashews, and it was excellent. 8 oz. Whole wheat spaghetti 3/3 c. Coarsely chipped cashews toasted in cast iron skillet and set aside in bowl. 1/4 c. Olive oil 1/3 c. Parmesan Entire clamshell pack of sage (chopped and bloomed in the skillet with the olive oil after toasting nuts)

Fighting over the last serving

Everyone in this house loves this pasta, however I might have my husband use a different pasta next time. Maybe shells would help to capture and distribute the walnut pieces better. As it is now, the nice big tender chunks of walnut end up in that last serving.

Dermot

Why no quantities?

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