Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi, my name is Gee Charman and welcome to my series of Dinner Delights. These are perfect
recipes to share with friends and family and they're super simple to cook. In this episode,
I'm going to show you how to cook a delicious salmon, pea, and dill pasta.
[Music]
So, I'm going to get some water on boiling for my pasta, and the great thing about this
dish, by the time the pasta is cooked, the sauce is also cooked and then it's quick and
simple to serve and ready for friends and family.
So, my water is just coming up to a boil and the one thing you need is really salty water
for pasta, otherwise it tastes disgusting.
There's an Italian saying that the pasta water should be as salty as the sea.
It won't absorb all this salt, so don't worry, you're not going to give yourself a cardiac
arrest. It's just to flavor the water and to flavor your pasta. I'm going to put that
into the boiling water
and let that just bubble away and while that's cooking, I'm going to get on with my sauce.
So, for my pasta sauce, I'm going to be using some beautiful salmon but I'm going to treat
it almost like muscles when I cook them.
So, I'm just going to put a bit of olive oil in a nice hot pan and because this is all
about spring and light and delicious flavors, instead of using onion, I'm going to use this
gorgeous spring onions that I've just finely cut up.
So, I'm going to fry those off,
they're also super quick to cook compared to normal onion.
So, I'm literally going to give these about 30 seconds
just to take off the edge of their flavor because they can be a little harsh when they're
raw,
and then I'm going to put my salmon in.
It's skinless, boneless, and I've just diced it into sort of one centimeter cubes. You
don't want to cut it up too small, but you also don't want a big bit.
The great thing about this recipe, if you've got a piece of leftover salmon in the fridge
that's already cooked, you can just flake it into the sauce at the end.
So, my salmon's going to go in,
and then to cook it, some white wine and then the lid on.
And that's just going to steam away and cook your salmon through.
Now, for the ingredients of this recipe, they're all in the description box.
Now you can see the salmon just starting to change color and go that beautiful soft pink.
I'll just give it another minute with the lid on. Now, the idea is that you don't want
to overcook your salmon. It can be slightly raw, well, raw is a dangerous word, but slightly
pink in the middle, that's OK.
So, I'm going to take my lid off now
and just give it a bit of a stir.
And the great thing about this, sometimes when you fry salmon without the skin on, it
can stick to the bottom of the pan, but because I've sort of steamed it, you won't have that,
and it's also the beginning of the sauce.
I'm just going to give it a mix through. Now, your salmon will break up, don't panic, you'll
stir through the pasta and it'll all break up into little bits, but just be a little
bit gentle to see if you can keep some of them together.
Now, to this beautiful wine that has reduced down, I'm going to add some slightly decadent
double cream and that's going to be the base of our sauce.
Give it one more stir.
Now, this all looks delicious, and smells amazing, but it is quite pale and the great
thing about spring dishes is you can make them really vibrant with beautiful ingredients.
So, I've got a few peas here. You can use fresh peas that you've just blanched off,
but these are good old frozen peas from the freezer. Straight from the freezer, no need
to defrost.
Another great tip for these, just defrost them and use them for salads in the spring,
they're beautiful.
So, just a few peas going in, you don't want to cook these for too long or they'll loose
their color and go that revolting school grey color that all our vegetables were.
So, let those simmer away. And to give everything a little bit of life, the zest of an unwaxed
lemon.
The zest of the lemon has all the natural oils in. You get this wonderful fragrance
as you're zesting them and a beautiful taste. You just want the yellow bit and not the white
So, a bit of lemon zest, and then finally, herb of choice when it comes to salmon, dill.
If you don't have it, don't worry, chives will be delicious or even maybe a bit of parsley,
but those are the only three I'd go for.
You want the dill to go in at the end.
Now, a little bit of black pepper.
Black pepper, salmon, and cream go beautifully together, and a pinch of salt.
This is such a super quick and simple recipe, it's just perfect when your friends turn up
for a spring time lunch or even in the evening.
And if you like this recipe, why not click on the subscribe button for more?
So my pasta is beautifully cooked with that slight bite, as we all know, al dente, and
I'm just going to give it a drain.
Reserve a little bit of the water back from the pan and catch it in the bottom.
My sauce is done, and in true Italian style, pasta to sauce, not sauce to pasta.
So my pasta goes in,
give it a gentle stir around,
and sometimes as you put pasta into sauces, it thickens and goes slightly stodgy, you
know those old school pasta bakes which you need to cut with a carving knife. So, if it
does go a little bit stodgy or you leave it to sit or you're warming it up for the next
day, this little bit of water in the bottom for the pasta is perfect, it'll just loosen
everything up and it's still got a little bit of flavor.
And then the final ingredient, this dill, and that should bring it to life.
Pasta and salmon can be a bit bland and a bit boring to look at, so the dill and the
peas really do help. And it's as simple as that. As soon as your pasta's cooked, your
sauce is cooked, you just combine them and it's done.
And all you need to do now is just serve it.
And if you don't have peas or dill you can always add your parsley or you could even
use your courgettes or green beans. Anything that gives it a bit of a zing and that bright
color. And then to finish it, just a final sprinkling of dill.
You can really taste the salmon, the dill is beautiful and those fresh peas just bring
it to life.
It's the perfect recipe for when people just turn up unexpectedly as they always seem to.
I really hope you've enjoyed this, so please join me for my next episode in Dinner Delights.
[Music]