2. Primi (pasta, risotto)

Pasta with Salmon and Cherry Tomatoes

It doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort to cook a delicious meal. This quick pasta dish was inspired by Simona’s insalata di pasta, salmone e pomodori. Her version was made with canned salmon and uncooked tomatoes and served lukewarm by mixing the cooked pasta with the cold sauce. That would certainly lovely too, but since our summer is a bit chilly I decided to cook the sauce. I used fresh salmon and cooked it sous-vide, but that is entirely optional. Sous-vide does make it easier to cook the salmon just right. Here’s what I did…

Ingredients

For 2 servings

300 grams (.66 lb) fresh salmon without skin

150 grams (.33 lb) short pasta such as penne or ziti

400 grams (.9 lb) cherry tomatoes

2 Tbsp sliced basil, about 12 leaves

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 clove garlic

zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Rinse the salmon with cold water and pat it dry with paper towels. Season on all sides with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

If using sous-vide, vacuum seal…

…and cook sous-vide for about 30 minutes at 43C/109F. This temperature will result in exceptionally tender and juicy salmon with a buttery texture.

If not using sous-vide, let the salmon sit while you prepare the rest so the salt can penetrate.

Bring a pot of water to a boil for the pasta. In the meantime, cut the cherry tomatoes in half. There is a neat trick to do this very quickly, for which you will need two flat plates of an appropriate size and a large very sharp chef’s knife. Arrange the tomatoes on a plate in a single layer and put the second plate on top. Depending on the size of your knife you will probably have to work in batches.

Now hold the top plate in place with one hand, while you slice in between the plates with the chef’s knife using your other hand.

Remove the top plate and if everything went well (your knife does need to be sharp for this to work) the tomatoes will all be neatly cut in half.

When the water boils, add salt and the pasta and set the timer for the time indicated on the package for al dente.

In a frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and add the garlic clove, cut into 3 or 4 slices. Cook until the garlic is golden, then remove the garlic. This will flavor the oil.

Now add the cherry tomatoes, season with a bit of salt, and cook, stirring regularly, over medium heat until the tomatoes are sweet and tender but not yet falling apart. Then turn off the heat.

Cut the basil into narrow ribbons with a sharp knife. This is easiest when you stack all leaves together and then roll them up. You should slice basil with a sharp knife rather than chopping it, as that would bruise the leaves too much.

Take the salmon out of the sous-vide and out of the bag…

…and break it up with a fork. If not using sous-vide, chop the raw salmon and add it to the tomatoes, cover, and allow the salmon to cook in the residual heat of the tomatoes.

Drain the pasta and add it to the tomatoes, together with the salmon and the grated zest and juice of 1/2 lemon.

Add the basil.

Gently toss to mix. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Serve at once on preheated plates.

Wine pairing

We enjoyed this with a Saint-Aubin, a white Burgundy (Chardonnay) with some oak. Another chardonnay with a bit of oak would work as well.

Flashback

DSC09404

Stir-fried chicken and eggplant with red curry paste is a delicious Thai dish and one of my favorites, as the eggplant soaks up the curry flavor and it all works beautifully together.

15 thoughts on “Pasta with Salmon and Cherry Tomatoes”

  1. I’m definitely going to try this. I had a salmon raviolini in Manhattan recently that was amazing, but I don’t want to bother with trying to stuff any little raviolini shells at home. I love the cherry tomato slicing trick, but it would require a much sharper knife than I currently have in my kitchen. Any knife I have on hand would make a tremendous mess out of that. So, maybe it’s a good excuse for an upgrade. Any suggestions?

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Make sure to get a knife from high quality steel, which should be at least 50 dollars or Euros for a 20 cm (8″) chef knife. You can choose between Japanese steel (will stay sharp longer but difficult to sharpen), French steel (easy to sharpen but you will need to do it often) or German (something in between — I own German knives myself). Also, try how the knife feels before buying because that is a personal thing. Hope this helps.

      Liked by 1 person

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  4. Fast and tasty and so practical . . . don’t know whether my knives are ‘cheffy’ enough to manage the nifty tomato ‘trick’ 🙂 ! At the moment in Australia we can buy packets of fresh salmon ‘for cooking’ – terrific quality irregular-sized pieces for a low price. Well, don’t think I am the only one who has noticed, since packets seem to get smaller and prices creep up every month 🙂 !

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  10. Reblogged this on Sustainable Health and commented:
    I discovered recently that salmon goes really well with pasta and this is another great example. I was impressed with the author’s cutting technique for the cherry tomatoes, but I lamented that any knife in my kitchen would turn that technique into a ruinous affair. I asked him for some insight, and his response is copied below:

    “Make sure to get a knife from high quality steel, which should be at least 50 dollars or Euros for a 20 cm (8″) chef knife. You can choose between Japanese steel (will stay sharp longer but difficult to sharpen), French steel (easy to sharpen but you will need to do it often) or German (something in between — I own German knives myself). Also, try how the knife feels before buying because that is a personal thing. Hope this helps.”

    Thank you, Stefan!

    Liked by 1 person

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