Eight Bells

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Monday, April 03, 2006

Salmon pasta

We bought this fantastic looking fillet of 'hot smoked' salmon at the farmers market a couple of Sundays ago and I've been pestering my better half to make something out of it ever since. It was a toss up betweeen a cold salmon salad or a hot pasta dish, the pasta won two votes to none (the cat didn't seem to mind either way and so she abstained). This is a creamy pasta and it can be made with cream but in line with our effort to reduce unnecessary fat while still maintaining great flavour we have used light evaporated milk. To be honest when I have tried it made with cream it's great but I feel a serious nap coming on shortly afterwards.
The size of the fillet you see here is enough to serve four people.



The sauce will take the longest so get started on that straight away. You can vary the herbs etc in this till you get it just how you like it.
Finely chop a medium onion (if you can't find a medium onion just use one with a lot of natural intuition) and put in a pot with a teaspoon of butter and just soften, do not brown. Once soft add the evaporated milk. It will take about 1/2 an hour to reduce to the consistency of thick cream but attention must be paid to it constantly as if it burns even slightly it's kaput. While you are stirring your sauce flake the salmon, removing any bones. Grate 1 courgette (zucchini) and grab a large hand full of baby spinach leaves. This evening we used spaghetti but you can use any pasta really, penne is very nice with this dish. Have a large pot of salted water on the boil for the pasta and start cooking when the sauce has been on for 15 mins or so.
When your pasta is al dente drain and return to the pot (keep about 1/2 cup of the pasta water to one side). Add salmon, courgette and spinach and combine with a quick stir (dont over do it you want to be able to see the seperate ingredients when you serve the meal).
Take the sauce off the heat and stir in fresh dill, parsley, salt, pepper and lemon zest. You can also use lemon juice but if you do make sure you add it just before you serve as it will most likely split the sauce, you can recombine the sauce if it splits with some vigorous stirring. Once you have the sauce as you like it pour over the pasta, salmon and veges. At this point if you find that the sauce has become too thick just stir in a little of the pasta water till you have the right consistency.
Serve immediately in large bowls with plenty of freshly grated Parmesan on hand, dig in, delicious. Just a note re tonights meal, the dish did turn out too dry as you can see from the pic (it should be a lot creamier). The sauce was just reduced for too long but as this is a blog and not a cooking show expect to see a few less than perfect results from time to time.



This little gourmands name is Isis and she is particulary partial to a little salmon.

3 Comments:

At 11:55 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice pic of Isis. Was this before or after the salmon?
Am enjoying your recipes. Are you going to post a picture of The Amazing Chocolate Cake with the gold icing which Julia made last year? I'll send you it's picture to refresh your memory; also, how about the pic of that wonderful pavlova with the berries on it? Christmas 2004...
Ss

 
At 6:04 pm, Blogger Eleanor Ruby Moon said...

hey jules...read this - http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/04/04/1143916511997.html

 
At 11:02 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi! Just want to say what a nice site. Bye, see you soon.
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