Honey Sage Butter From Alfresco Pasta

So last week I was home with a cold and a sprained ankle, but after a day of sniffling, coughing, icing and elevating, I was ready to get out of the house. Plus, it was one of those beautiful late summer days with a chilly high of 86 degrees.

Ty and I went to the East Nashville Farmers Market, which we'd never been to before. It was small, about the same size as West Nashville's, with many of the same vendors. Delvin Farms had apples, Kenny's Cheese had bloody mary mix, Foxy Baking Co. had tomato pie.... but we struck gold when we ended up at Alfresco Pasta's booth.

Now, I'm a major pasta fan – I could probably eat lasagna on Monday, angel hair on Tuesday, ziti on Wednesday and so on, and never get tired of the stuff. But what we found from the pasta makers was not just their pasta – which they flash-freeze, so you take it home and put it in the freezer until you're ready to boil it – but their butter.

Honey Sage Butter, to be exact.

Sure, it looks like any other herbed butter, but the flavor is just amazing. It's fresh, light, sweet and basically amazing in all possible ways. And we almost didn't buy it.

Alfresco's owner said they've been selling their pasta to restaurants and caterers for years, but last year someone suggested they try the farmers market crowd. Last August, they started going to the Franklin Farmers Market. This August, they're going to seven in the Nashville area.

They offer both stuffed pastas (ravioli, etc.) and cut pastas (fettucini, etc.), as well as sauces. The sweet potato gnocchi caught my eye, because I love gnocchi. You have to enjoy the doughy texture (almost akin to how peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth), but fortunately both Ty and I are fans. When I asked what kind of sauce to use on the sweet potato gnocchi, he pulled out the Honey Sage Butter, which they created especially for this pasta. And he cut us a deal (we were also buying Benton's bacon ravioli), so home we went with the delicious butter in tow.

Its usage definitely isn't limited to pasta topping. The first night, Ty sauteed some polish sausage with Vidalia onions. He had leftover slices of onion, so he sprinkled some onions on a slice of honey-sage-buttered Great Harvest bread.

It. was. divine. I don't even really like onions that much, especially raw onions. But the sweetness of the onions and the sweetness of the butter... amazing. (As always, my photography leaves much to be desired, but you get the gist.)

Over the next few days, we had this butter on bread, bagels and crackers before finally using it for its intended purpose last night. The sweet potato gnocchi was tasty, but not as exceptional as this butter, that's for sure.

Next week we'll be out of town, so I'm forgoing the farmers market tomorrow... but if you're reading this and you live in East Nashville, I highly, highly recommend it. And I'm sure Paula Deen does too.