Mira Agarwal
COOKBOOK AUTHOR · BROOKLYN · MEMBER IACP
Brown butter pasta with sage and walnuts
A 30-minute weeknight pasta that tastes like you tried much harder. The trick is browning the butter twice.
Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until just shy of al dente, about 2 minutes less than the package says.
While the pasta cooks, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Once it foams, add the sage leaves and let them crisp, then transfer to a paper towel and reserve. Continue cooking the butter until it smells nutty and turns golden brown, about 4 minutes.
Add the garlic and red pepper flakes; cook for 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Add the walnuts and toss in the brown butter for another minute.
Reserve a cup of pasta water, then drain the pasta and add it directly to the skillet. Add half the pasta water and toss vigorously over low heat until the sauce emulsifies and clings to the pasta.
Off heat, stir in the parmesan, lemon juice, and zest. Season with salt and pepper. If the sauce feels dry, add more pasta water a splash at a time.
Plate, top with the reserved fried sage, more parmesan, more red pepper flakes, and the parsley if using. Serve immediately.
Mira Agarwal develops recipes for home cooks. She writes the weekly newsletter The Pantry, which has 48,000 subscribers, and her work has appeared in Bon Appétit, Eater, Saveur, and The New York Times. Her first cookbook, The Pantry Cookbook, is forthcoming from Phaidon in October 2026. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and a cat who supervises everything.
The Pantry Cookbook
100 recipes built around what you already have on the shelf. Pasta, beans, tinned fish, eggs, butter, lemon — and a hundred ways to make them dinner. Photographed by Heidi Bjornsdotter.
PHAIDON · 384 PAGES · 100 RECIPES · OCTOBER 14 2026
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