Creamy Salmon Pasta

This creamy salmon pasta with smoked scamorzza is a perfect combination of flavors. The tender, flaky salmon brings a rich, buttery essence that complements the creamy, smoky notes of the scamorzza cheese. Even though this is a dish with heavy cream, its still feels light. Hope you give this one a try!

CREAMY SALMON PASTA WITH SMOKED SCAMORZZA

Recipe by Mark Calaminici | Food Loves Company

Serves 4

Ingredients

Extra virgin olive oil, to taste

2 tbsp. unsalted butter

400g Salmon, cut into chunks

Salt, to taste

Freshly cracked pepper, to taste

1/2 small sweet onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced or finely chopped

Chili flakes, to taste

White wine, a splash

250ml heavy cream

80g smoked scamorza or mozzarella, coarsely grated

100g frozen peas, optional

5g Fresh parsley, finely chopped

Method

1. In a large bowl add salmon and drizzle with enough extra virgin olive oil to cover the salmon. season with salt and freshly cracked pepper. Give a mix to combine everything. In a pan on medium-high heat, add salmon and cook, mixing it around. You will see the pan may have some fond developing and that will get released when we add the wine. Remove salmon to a plate and set aside. Don’t worry if it’s not fully cooked. It will finish cooking when we add it back to the sauce. Add onion, garlic and chilli flakes. Sauté until onions have softened. Deglaze with white wine. Reduce and cook the wine down. Add heavy cream and start to reduce. Add smoked scamorza a small handful at a time, mixing it into the cream sauce. You can use a whisk as well. Doing it in small handfuls will make it harder for the cheese to clump up and nicely melt into the sauce. If you are still left with a big clump of cheese, you can try blending the sauce, that could help. Add salmon back to the pan and continue to reduce cream and break up the salmon into pieces. You can leave some pieces larger if you like. Add peas if you are taking this extra step. Give a mix and let everything simmer and come together, stirring frequently. You can bring the heat down to low at this point. Taste and adjust any seasonings.

2. Cook the rigatoni in a large pot of boiling salted water just before al dente, as we will finish cooking the pasta in the sauce. Reserve pasta water.

3. Add pasta to the pan with a ladle of pasta water. Continue to cook the pasta in the pan, stirring and tossing, adding more pasta water if needed. Turn off the heat or remove the pan from the head and add parsley. Mix and toss to incorporate into the pasta. Enjoy!