When it comes to seafood pasta, it’s mostly shellfish pasta that takes up that space. And, as much as I love clams or vongole, this creamy salmon Tuscan pasta is a rich and decadent seafood pasta dish that can easily be done on a weeknight and feed the entire family – win win!
Creamy salmon Tuscan pasta
Creamy pastas can be overlooked (unless you’re butchering the original recipe of carbonara!). They are often substituted with cheese or butter rather than cream (like my Alfredo!), but I have been playing around with lots of flavours are there are so many ingredients that cut through that richness and make it lighter and brighter. The secret? Herbs and wine.
Let’s get into the ingredients because it might look like a lot, but they all play an integral part to this creamy salmon Tuscan pasta.
White wine
Wine is a great balancer in meals. As cream can be heavy and dense, the wine will smooth it out and bring some more dimension to it. Which type? Something dry is preferred for cooking as it will give more acid to the dish. If you don’t like wine, you can use a type of vinegar but you can also cook out wine so that there is no alcohol in it.
Salmon
Salmon comes in so many different forms: tinned, skin on, skin off. So, which one for this? As much as it pains me to say this, skinless salmon fillets will work best. You want them to break up easily and be stirred throughout the meal.
Herbs
I love using herbs in my dishes, they’re such a key factor for flavour. For this one, I prefer flat leaf parsley and dill. Parsley is light and familiar, and dill has a brightness and summer sort of flavour that can lighten up the cream. Dill is also the perfect herb to pair with seafood.
Cherry tomatoes
More acid! More dimension! Cherry tomatoes are all about the freshness that they can bring. They are so acidic but also sweet – I tried it without them, and it just didn’t have the same effect.
Technique for creamy salmon Tuscan pasta
It’s nothing too complicated for this dish. I wanted to keep it clean and easy. This is a great meal for a weeknight, so you don’t want to be cooking over a hot stove for hours. Just keep an eye on the salmon to make sure it doesn’t overcook.
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Creamy salmon Tuscan pasta
Ingredients
- 500 g penne pasta
- 280 g skinless salmon fillets
- 1 tbsp sweet paprika
- 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
- 50 g butter
- 4 shallots finely sliced
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 200 g cherry tomatoes halved
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 50 g parmesan
- 30 g parsley finely chopped
- 30 g dill finely chopped
- 1/2 lemon
- sea salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to the boil. Follow the instructions on the back of the pasta packet for al dente pasta and drain your pasta 1 - 2 minutes before the suggested cooking time. Reserve up to 1/2 cup of pasta water.
- Season the salmon fillets with sweet paprika, garlic powder and a pinch of salt of pepper on all sides.
- In a stainless steel frypan on a medium - high heat, bring the olive oil to heat. Place the salmon into the frypan and cook for 4 minutes on each side for medium rare. If you prefer your salmon a little more cooked, reduce the heat and cook for an additional 2 minutes on each side. Remove the salmon from the pan and set to the side.
- On a medium heat, add the butter to the pan and cook until bubbling and melted. Add the shallots and garlic to the pan and cook for a further 4 minutes or until fragrant and translucent, stirring occasionally. Add the tomatoes to the pan and cook for an additional 2 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft. Deglaze the pan with the wine and cook until 80% of the liquid has evaporated. Add the cream to the pan and cook until bubbling, stirring occasionally.
- Break the salmon apart with your hands and stir through the sauce. On a low heat, stir the pasta through the sauce while slowly incorporating the pasta water and parmesean until you have a silky and glossy texture. Stir through the herbs with a big squeeze of lemon.
- Serve immediately with an extra sprinkling of cheese on top.
I love this so much I’ve made it 3 times in 2 weeks!
I hope you’re not offended I tweaked it tiny bit… added 2 cups of fresh grated parmesan in with the cream. And folded bout 1/2 cup to 1 cup baby spinach in with the pasta till wilts. Since store was out dill and parsley. So creamy tomato deliciousness!
So absolutely amazing oh and I used white vinegar I didn’t have any wine absolutely phenomenal flavor, luvvv all your recipes!
Thank you for that lovely feedback!
Thank you so much for sharing this variation. I’m going to try it! It lets us novice cooks know things didn’t have to be just by the book and we can experiment and tweek when certain things not available. 👍🏿👏🏿
This was phenomenal definitely planning to make again. Can this be frozen? If so for how long?
Thank you! I don’t think it would freeze well but let me know if you try it!
Hey soI made this for like 20th time because it’s the greatest, bout a month ago. Then suddenly covid finally got me, & couldn’t smell, so decided to freeze and test..
I just thawed a day fridge then heated in microwave and gotta say tasted the same to me, and just as delicious!