How is everyone? I hope you are having a very lovely February!
Anyway, a few days ago, I shared how I made some Smoked Salmon Panini at home. I bought this big 1-kilo slab of smoked salmon from S&R and I still had a lot of smoked salmon left! So I thought, hmmm… what else can I make with smoked salmon? How about some pasta?
Click here if you want to read more about how I stored the smoked salmon, what flavors smoked salmon is good with, etc… I was quite thorough in my last smoked salmon post and there is no need to repeat all the information here. 🙂
SMOKED SALMON CREAM PASTA
Salmon and cream pasta has been a favorite combination of mine ever since I ordered one at a bakery cafe a couple of years ago. I was so glad that I now had the chance to create something similar.
INGREDIENTS
- smoked salmon (as much as you like), torn into bite-sized pieces
- spaghetti or other pasta, cooked; reserve a bowl of the pasta water
- garlic butter (or just regular butter and add 1 clove of finely-minced garlic)
- all-purpose cream
- white cheese triangles (you can substitute with cream cheese)
- green onions, chopped
Here’s that yummy salmon 🙂 You can put as much or as little as you want. You’re cooking! You’re in control. I put a lot of salmon in my pasta, hehe.
PROCEDURE
Melt garlic butter, 4 Tablespoons. For less cleanup, I just reused the pan I cooked the pasta in. It is clean – I just boiled pasta in it and then gave it a quick rinse before reusing. Yup, I’m lazy! 😀
Add cream, to taste. Start with half the carton and then just keep adding if you want it creamier. I ended up using about 3/4 of the carton. I also added 4 little triangles of the President cheese. You can use cream cheese (about 1/4 cup of cream cheese) or other creamy white cheeses.
Just blend the butter, cream and melted cheese. Add about half a cup of the pasta water if the sauce gets too thick. Let it boil then lower the heat. Those “black” things you see in the pic are butter bubbles. There is nothing else here except garlic butter, cream, water and cheese.
As soon as the sauce comes together, add the pasta.
At this point, you can adjust the sauce. You can add more cream or pasta water if the sauce is too thick.
Add the green onions and smoked salmon.
Turn off the heat.
Mix.
Salt to taste. Since the smoked salmon is already a bit salty, and the cheese is also a bit salty, AND I also salted the pasta when I boiled it, I didn’t feel like it needed a lot more salt. Just be mindful when adding more salt so you don’t oversalt.
Done! Squeeze some lemon juice on the pasta before eating! Enjoy! 
Oooooo…. it was delicious! It is a very easy, yet very comforting pasta dish. This recipe is a great way to enjoy smoked salmon.
In my opinion, a simple cream base works very well with smoked salmon. And you know how I feel about green onions and cream! Yes, I like the flavor combination of green onions / chives, cream and smoked salmon. Don’t forget to squeeze some lemon juice on it before eating, because the lemon juice really makes the flavors pop.
Hope you try the recipe! I am getting hungry now looking at this picture, haha!
