Recipe for Creamy Salmon Pasta

Do you find it hard to come up with ideas for quick and easy mid-week pasta meals? This week I found myself with some fresh salmon, double cream and a packet of unopened spaghetti in the fridge that needed to be used. I’ve not made a creamy salmon pasta before so I searched the internet to find a recipe. Within minutes I found one on the BBC Good Food website. Not only did it require all of the above but some miscellaneous ingredients that I also found that I either had in the fridge or the freezer.

To be honest I didn’t even consider sharing this recipe as a blog until I took the first mouthful. It was delicious. I grabbed my camera and took a quick photo so that it could be shared. Unfortunately it didn’t do the dish any justice so I have to own up to the fact that the image I’ve used is a stock one from Canva.com and not the one of my half-eaten meal. The image is however a true representation of the dish right down to the dill garnish.

For 2 people you will need:

Ingredients

• 2 salmon fillets
• 1 tbsp olive oil plus 1 tsp for roasting
• 175g penne (or a pasta of your choice)
• 2 shallots or one small onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 100ml white wine
• 200ml double cream or crème fraîche
• ¼ lemon, zested and juiced
• ½ small bunch of dill, finely chopped

Method

1. Place salmon on a baking tray, drizzle with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and roast for 12 minutes until opaque and the flesh starts to flake when pressed
2. While the salmon is cooking boil the pasta according to its instructions
3. Once cooked drain and reserve 100ml of the water
4. Heat the remaining olive oil in a wide frying pan and fry the onion until softened but not turning golden
5. Add the garlic and fry for a minute more until fragrant
6. Add the wine, bubble for a few minutes until reduced by half
7. Add the cream and season well
8. Bring to a very gentle simmer
9. Flake the cooked salmon into big chunks leaving the skin behind
10. Add to the sauce with the cooked pasta
11. Add lemon zest, a squeeze of the juice and most of the dill
12. Add a splash of the pasta water to the sauce to coast the pasta if you need to
13. Check the seasoning, if using double cream you may need a squeeze more lemon juice
14. Grind over some black pepper and scatter over the remaining dill
15. Serve with a green salad

Garnish

Sprinkle with parmesan cheese shavings and serve with warm ciabatta rolls or olive ciabatta bread on the side

My Hacks

I used spaghetti instead of penne and added some small cooked prawns to the sauce as I only had one salmon fillet. I always chop and freeze any leftover fresh herbs for occasions such as this. I also had some baby tomatoes that I was tempted to add to the sauce but I was out-voted. It could be an option though if you have some in stock.

My Opinion

Although there appear to be a lot of steps to follow the salmon, pasta and sauce can all be cooked simultaneously. The lemon and dill give this dish a lovely fresh flavour that is enhanced even more with the addition of a glass of crisp cold white wine. Why not finish the whole meal with my No Cook, Low Cal Tiramisu recipe and make it an Italian night in! (see the link below 👇)

Enjoy!

Useful Links

Below you will find some useful links which are relevant to this article.

• BBC Good Food
• No Cook Low Cal Tiramisu
• Canva