Smoked Salmon Pasta

This creamy smoked salmon pasta is rich, silky and ridiculously easy to make. A quick, comforting dinner that tastes way fancier than it is.

Prep Time10

Cook Time10

Total Time20

Course: Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Servings:

Author: Chris Collins

Equipment

Sharp Knife & Chopping Board
Large Pan & Wooden Spoon (for sauce)
Large Pot & Tongs (for cooking pasta)
Microplane/Zester (for lemon)

Ingredients

7oz / 200g Tagliatelle, or long-cut pasta of choice (see notes)
2 tbsp / 30g Unsalted Butter
2 small Shallots, finely diced
1 clove of Garlic, finely diced
1 Lemon, zest half of it then squeeze 1 tsp of juice
1/4 tsp Black Pepper, or to taste
1/2 cup / 120ml Chicken Stock
3.5oz / 100g full-fat Cream Cheese, leave at room temp (see notes)
1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard
2 tbsp finely diced Fresh Chives (save ~ 1/2 tbsp for garnish)
4oz / 125g Smoked Salmon, roughly torn

Instructions

Add the pasta to salted boiling water and cook until al dente. Don't drain.
Place a large pan over medium heat and melt the butter. Add the shallots and gently sweat them down until soft, golden and sweet. Add the pepper, garlic and zest of 1/2 a lemon and fry for 20 seconds or so (be careful it doesn't burn).
Pour in the stock, then swiftly stir in the cream cheese until it blends into a sauce. Stir in 1 1/2 tbsp chives, 1 tsp lemon juice and 1/2 tsp Dijon, then bring to a gentle simmer. It should already be thick enough, but if it's pretty watery, just gently simmer for a minute or so. Check for seasoning and adjust if needed (go easy on the salt as the salmon will add a good amount).
Cut the heat and use tongs to transfer the pasta straight from the pot into the pan. Toss until the sauce thickens and clings to the pasta. If you need to thin out the sauce, just simply toss in a splash of the leftover pasta water.
Once the sauce is the perfect consistency, gently toss in the smoked salmon until it's just combined. Don't go overboard, as it will be delicate.
Serve up with the leftover chives and some black pepper if desired, then tuck in and enjoy!

Video

Notes

a) Pasta - you can really use any pasta you fancy, I just like tagliatelle as it's a little 'fancy'. I find long-cut pasta works better for this sauce, as it's easier to toss and control the consistency of the sauce, but short-cut pasta will work just fine. Just to confirm, the tagliatelle is dried weight (not fresh pasta).

b) Cream Cheese - this will likely split a little when you stir it into the sauce, but give it a good whisk and it'll come back together. Make sure you're using full-fat cream cheese for the best flavour (it also has less risk of splitting).

c) Consistency - the sauce will thicken pretty quickly, especially once you add the pasta. Make sure it's the perfect consistency before you add the salmon, just so you don't have to toss the pasta too much and risk the salmon breaking up.

d) Salt - go easy when seasoning, as the smoked salmon just adds quite a bit of salt. Much easier to add more than take it out!

e) Calories - whole recipe divided by 2.

Nutrition