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Dinner Tonight: Salmon and Pea Tagliatelle

Posted by Blake Royer, May 7, 2009 at 4:30 PM

Salmon and cream is a winning combination, which is why it's such a classic to serve the fish with creamy sauces. Recipes calling for salmon with pasta are also quite common if you look around—the fish has an assertive enough flavor that it takes quite well to chunking into a pasta dish without getting lost. Usually cream is its friendly neighbor to add the needed richness. So I was eager to see how this recipe from Delicious. magazine would fare, which replaces cream with yogurt to lighten things up.

Seriously, I'll probably never go back to cream again. While I expected the yogurt in this recipe to be thin and tart, it instead played wonderfully off the already-rich salmon, pretty much disappearing into the dish and complementing just enough so that you hardly notice it's there. I didn't miss the cream at all. Shallots simmered in vegetable stock create a nice base of flavor, and the fresh peas are lovely and fresh and Spring-y. If at all possible, seek out fresh pasta for this since the tender tagliatelle is wonderful in this dish.

Salmon and Pea Tagliatelle

-serves 4-

Adapted from Delicious.

Ingredients

1 pound dried tagliatelle, or 1.5 pounds fresh
1 pound salmon fillet
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup vegetable stock
2 shallots, finely chopped
1/2 pound frozen or fresh peas
1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Procedure

1. Bring a pot of salty water to boil. Cook the pasta until al dente if dried, tender if fresh.

2. Meanwhile, in a second skillet or small pot, bring the stock to a boil and add the shallots, peas, and salt and black pepper to taste. Cook until the peas are tender, longer if fresh.

3. In the meantime, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, then cook the salmon skin-side up until 3/4 cooked through. Flip and finish cooking. The skin should remove easily from the fish. Discard the skin and flake the salmon gently.

4. Drain the pasta and return to its cooking pot. Add the yogurt along with the pea mixture and the chopped parsley. Toss well to combine, then stir in the salmon chunks. Divide into bowls and serve immediately.

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Tags: pastas, peas, salmon, tagliatelle

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