Gnocchi with brown butter and fried sage is a 20-minute meal with flair

How was your 2025? For many, myself included, it was fairly tumultuous. There was work stress, anxiety about my family s health and sadness about worl...

How was your 2025? For many, myself included, it was fairly tumultuous. There was work stress, anxiety about my family’s health and sadness about world events. But there were bright spots, too, including awe-inspiring concerts; trips to different cities and countries; and deepening friendships over card games, meals and dancing until the wee hours.

In any given year, there’s always reason to celebrate, even if it’s just the fact that you made it through. So to bid farewell to the old and ring in the new, we’re making brown butter and fried sage leaves to pour over pan-seared gnocchi - a meal that feels festive and extravagant but takes only 20 minutes to prepare.

It starts with store-bought gnocchi that get cooked in a nonstick or cast-iron skillet until brown and crisp on the outside, though they retain a slight chew for a variety of textures. It’s a technique I shared over the summer, and I am once again asking you to try it for yourself if you haven’t already. (You are certainly welcome to make your own potato or ricotta gnocchi if you’re in the mood for more of a project during the holiday week.)

Brown butter and fried sage are classic partners for gnocchi. (If you’re not a fan of the potato dumplings for whatever reason, you could pour brown butter and sage on any type of pasta and it would be delicious.) The butter is nutty with notes of caramel, while the sage is earthy, savory and woodsy, with a touch of freshness that some liken to citrus, eucalyptus or mint.

Browning butter is simple to do but requires a watchful eye and keen senses. “Butter is a matrix of fat, water, proteins and sugars,” recipes editor Becky Krystal wrote on the subject. When it is exposed to heat, the water is driven off and what remains starts to evolve, creating new aroma and flavor compounds. “Use your eyes, ears and nose. The bubbling and crackling … followed by silence means the water has been cooked off and it’s time to pay even closer attention as the solids brown.”