Creme Fraiche Salmon Pasta is a quick, easy, and sophisticated dish you can make in under 30 minutes with only 7 ingredients. It's a type of salmon pasta without cream. Instead of cream, it uses creme fraiche, an ingredient that classically pairs wonderfully with salmon. The creme fraiche along with a with a few other flavors achieves a perfectly balanced, flavorful salmon pasta dish.
The slightly tart taste of creamy creme fraiche is perfect for counteracting the richness of buttery salmon and starchy pasta. And though Salmon Creme Fraiche Pasta isn't an entirely new idea, this recipe is different and special.
What makes this Salmon and Creme Fraiche Pasta special?
There are a few reasons this dish is so delicious. The secrets are in the ingredients and in the process.
It Calls for Baking the Salmon
The best part of this Creme Fraiche Salmon Pasta dish is that the salmon bakes in the oven. Baking salmon cooks it gently, keeping it tender and moist. It bakes alongside other fresh, flavorful ingredients like shallots, capers, creme fraiche, and olive oil, before combining with cooked pasta and pasta water.
This baking results in a refined salmon pasta dish with a smooth, pleasant texture, without cream.
The process is actually quite similar to Jenny Hayrinen's baked feta pasta that went viral several months ago. (Her recipe inspired me to make a dip version of that recipe too, baked feta dip.)
It's Simple and Fast
Salmon Creme Fraiche Pasta cooks in about 30 minutes from start to finish. Including prep work. That's because the pasta cooks on the stovetop while the salmon cooks in the oven. When both finish cooking, you can quickly combine the two components and add fresh herbs.
How to make Salmon and Creme Fraiche Pasta
This delicious pasta dish comes together with just 7 ingredients (plus salt/pepper/olive oil) and 3 easy steps.
Ingredients for this Salmon Pasta without Cream
- Salmon
- Creme fraiche
- Capers
- Shallots
- Pasta (long pasta such as pappardelle, linguine, or tagliatelle)
- Parsley
- Lemon juice
- salt, pepper, and olive oil
Steps
- Bake the salmon, Creme Fraiche, capers, and shallots with salt and a drizzle of olive oil, for about 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta.
- Mash up the salmon and Creme Fraiche and add the pasta, pasta water, parsley, lemon, and more capers.
- Toss to combine
Equipment for making Baked Salmon and Creme Fraiche Pasta
Just get the chef's knife already. Every home cook needs one, and this Wustoff brand is perfect for everyday home cooks.
These baking dishes are not just beautiful, but also functional. You need a good baking dish with high sides to hold all the pasta and salmon in this dish. The fact that they're beautiful doesn't hurt... If making this pasta for a dinner party, just leave the pasta in the dish and serve it from there.
You'll need a pair of tongs to make this recipe in order to combine the pasta and salmon at the end. Silicon tongs will allow you to toss sufficiently without breaking up the long pasta shape. Metal tips lead to more pasta breakage.
Finally, I always use a stockpot that is wider than it is deep to make pasta. it allows me to taste the pasta more easily to check for doneness. Who likes reaching their whole arm in a pot just to taste a noodle?
Recipe
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Creme Fraiche Salmon Pasta
- Prep Time: 8
- Cook Time: 22
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Pasta, salmon pasta, seafood
- Method: Pasta water, baked salmon
- Cuisine: Italian, American
Description
Creme Fraiche & Salmon Pasta combines rich and buttery salmon with bright and creamy Creme Fraiche to create a perfectly balanced pasta dish.
Ingredients
- 1 pound of pappardelle, fettuccine, or tagliatelle
- ½ to ¾ of a pound of salmon (see note 1)
- 1 cup of Creme Fraiche (see note 2)
- 4 Tb capers, divided
- 1 large or 2 small shallots, diced
- 2 Tb olive oil
- ¼ c chopped parsley
- The juice of half a lemon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F and bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water well so it tastes slightly salty.
- Place shallots, 2 tablespoons of the capers, Creme Fraiche, and olive oil in a baking dish, season with ½ teaspoon of salt and and pinch of freshly cracked black pepper, and toss to combine.
- Nestle salmon in the center of the mixture, and spread some of the mixture on top of the salmon too.
- Bake the salmon for 20 minutes. Once salmon has been baking for 12 minutes, add the pasta to the boiling water. (assuming pasta takes about 10 minutes. You want the pasta to finish cooking 2 minutes after the salmon)
- When salmon is done, peel and discard its skin. Flake the salmon apart and toss to combine with the Creme Fraiche mixture. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water, drain the pasta, and add the pasta and water to the salmon.
- Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of capers, lemon juice, and fresh parsley. Use tongs to gently toss until the pasta water and Creme Fraiche mixture make a cohesive sauce that clings to the pasta.
- Serve
Keywords: salmon creme fraiche pasta, creme fraiche salmon pasta, salmon pasta without cream, salmon and creme fraiche pasta