salvia / sage

Salvia officinalis

Ancient Greeks and Romans prized sage for its medicinal qualities and it was only in the Middle Ages that people started to use it as an ingredient in food preparations. The name reflects sage's fame as a plant with curative properties: salvia, in fact, derives from the Latin adjective salvus, meaning safe, healthy.

Salvia has a distinct flavor, which makes it a beloved herb in the kitchen. It is also a pretty plant, with velvety leaves that sparkle in the sun and delicately-colored flowers. Nowadays there are many cultivars of sage, some of them selected for ornamental use.

I am reminded of salvia every time I use the word salve, a common greeting in Italian, which literally means 'be healthy.' In the medieval poem Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum, the Salernitan Rule of Health, a work from the medical school of Salerno, a verse asks: 'why should a man die who has sage in his garden?' Hence, to be on the safe side, I planted some Golden sage (Salvia officinalis icterina), a pretty and flavorful cultivar.

This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, a food blogging event started by Kalyn's Kitchen, hosted this week by Küchenlatein, whom I would like to thank for offering me a nice way of brushing up my German. Here is the roundup of WHB #86.

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Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post: 

salvia

or launch the salvia audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

Comments

[jann]

ah, sage~it really is a gentle word!

[Ulrike]

Thanks for your entry. I didn't know the golden sage - until now.

[Kalyn]

I love sage! It's one of the first fresh herbs I ever had, at my grandmother's house.

[Simona Carini]

I do love sage too. I have always been fascinated by the color and texture of its leaves.

[Kalyn]

I don't know why I'm just now noticing your Italian pronunciation link, but I LOVE it. What a fun idea.

[Simona Carini]

Thanks for your feedback, Kalyn. The audio snipped was not there when I originally posted the blog entry, so it was not a matter of you not noticing it. A couple of days after your visit I got all the necessary tech pieces together and added sound: I tested it with a couple of posts and then I started the process of adding the spoken words to all the old entries, which is why when you visited yesterday you found the link.

[Paz]

Simona: The very first time I ever used fresh sage was for a recipe in The food of Love. ;-) I liked it.

Paz (who can't stop writing about The Food of Love) ;-)