I knew a chef who owned the greatest little Italian restaurant in Dunsmuir, Calif. many years ago.  Magdalena was from Sardinia and ever year she worked very hard during the summer months and during the winter she would go back to Italy and travel to the villages and find recipes from the elders.  We use to exchange herbal recipes and she gave me this very simple but tasty recipe of fried sage leaves.  She used Berggarten (German Mountain Garden) Sage.   This sage is often used by professional chefs for its clean flavor with no bitterness. It can live in the garden up to ten years. It never flowers and needs full sun and good drainage.

The recipe is very simple you beat one egg in some milk I actually used half/half in this recipe because I had no milk.  I put some flour on a plate and put some freshly ground pepper and salt to taste and mix it in the flour.  You dip each sage leaf in the egg/milk mixture and then roll it in flour.

Then in a hot pan with enough virgin olive oil you fry the sage leaves until golden brown turning them over and frying each side. Place on a paper towel to absorb the oil then place on a plate and serve hot. Now that is Italian.