All Things Chill

Penne Pasta with Fresh Pesto and Smoked Salmon

Hahaha. Just a quick lil’ mock-up of a cook book if someone were so inclined to give me money to write it. I’d love to keep that title though, it’s so damn all-encompassing, ya know? Hee hee. On with the recipe!

Ingredients:

2 cups pasta (I used penne)
1/2 cup smoked salmon (local growers in Washington)
1/2 cup Pesto (recipe below)

Fabrication:

1. Bring water to a boil. When bubbling, add a pinch of salt and add pasta
2. Flake smoked salmon with a fork into bite-sized chunks
3. After 9 or 10 minutes, drain pasta, reserving 1/4 cup pasta water
4. Add pasta, pasta water and 1/2 cup of pesto into a bowl.
5. Stir until incorporated and gently fold in smoked salmon
6. Garnish with some shredded cheese and a few sprigs of dill

Spinach and Almond Pesto (alternate recipe here)

Ingredients:

2 cups herbs, firmly packed (Traditionally basil, I used spinach)
1/2 cup of nuts (traditionally pine nuts, I used toasted almonds)
3 garlic cloves
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2/3 cup cheese (traditionally Parmigiano-Reggiano, I used Gruyere)
2 or 3 turns of a pepper mill (1/2 tsp)

Fabrication:

1. In a food processor, chop garlic until it is minced
2. Add all other ingredients, except for the olive oil
3. While the processor is on, drizzle in the olive oil until it becomes the desired consistency
4. Serve or store for about a week

It’s a super easy recipe, especially since your protein (salmon) is ready to eat right out of the box! Ooh Ooh, I saved the skin so I could broil it later and make it extra crunchy for salmon skin rolls. MMMmMMmmMM. I don’t have much else to say, but it was good! LOL.

YAY. Smoked salmon!

~Spec

This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 6:25 pm and is filed under Cheap [and GOOD] Eats, Cooking Culture, Cuisine, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.