This salmon pasta made with tortellini in a cream garlic sauce, is big on taste but low on effort, uses a number of cheat ingredients and takes less than 10 minutes to cook.
I appreciate that this creamy garlic salmon pasta is one of the most lazy recipes that I have published for ages, but it is still delicious, and just because something is low on effort it does not mean that it cannot taste great surely?
I try to keep a well stocked freezer for precisely these situations – I reckon that I can make several good meals from the contents of my freezer and cupboard at any one time. Frozen food is often fresher than fresh – due to the speed at which it goes from being caught, picked or harvested to frozen. This is especially true of fish, which is at its absolute best the fresher it is, which for most consumers will be frozen.
Last year I had a voyage on a frozen at sea fishing boat, and the speed at which the fish are caught, prepared and then frozen is truly astonishing.  The fish come out of the sea and are immediately sent to the on-board factory to be gutted, filleted, packed and blast frozen.  Unless you catch it yourself, and cook it on the boat, you cannot get fresher than that.  If you think about the journey that fresh fish takes to reach a supermarket, from boat, to local fish market, to packaging plant, to shop to you, it is easily going to be two days old by the time it gets into your kitchen.  There is a reason that the majority of, at least inland, fish and chip shops in the UK use frozen at sea fish – that the freshness and the quality are simply better.
I made a very simple sauce for my salmon pasta, by frying some ready chopped frozen onion, adding a large chunk of Boursin cream cheese, a handful of wilting rocket leaves and served with ricotta and spinach fresh tortellini. If you make a pasta sauce that needs thinning skim off a little of the pasta cooking water, it will be full of starch and will add a silky smoothness to your sauce. Once opened you can freeze any leftover fresh pasta and cook from frozen when you want it.
- 1 knob butter
- 2 tbs ready chopped frozen onion
- 40 g / 1/2 packet garlic and herb cheese
- leaves handful rocket - chopped
- Squeeze lemon
- 1 in salmon fillet - cooked the microwave
- 1 x 250g packet fresh filled pasta
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Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the onion until starting to turn golden. Add the cheese and stir over a low heat until it has melted.
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Whilst the onion is frying cook the salmon and bring a large pan of water to the boil for the pasta.
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Cook the pasta for about two minutes, when it is cooked it will turn paler in colour and float to the top of the pan.
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Skim off some of the pasta water and add it to the onions and cheese to make a coating sauce. Flake or cut the salmon into 1cm cubes and add to the sauce along with the chopped rocket and lemon juice. Stir to wilt the rocket.
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Drain the pasta and return to the saucepan.
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Pour over the sauce, gently stir; so as not to break up the fish, and serve immediately with a wedge of lemon and a garnish of fresh herbs.
- This recipe is 17 Weight Watchers Smart Points per portion
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Sammie
I love this easy salmon and pasta dish, great price on the salmon too. Easy dinners ads neede when there are 5 of us here, although not always 5 to feed! I’ll definitely take a look at Iceland’s fish range, thank you.
Helen
Thanks Sammie. The salmon is great, and if you break it up into a sauce one piece will do two people. They are generously sized pieces.
Bintu | Recipes From A Pantry
I do have a few packs on the Iceland salmon in my freezer so would love to have a go of your recipe over the weekend. Love, love, love thier range.
Helen
I am so impressed by it. I am going to stock up on those fish meals too. Perfect for a lazy evening in.
Camilla
Funnily enough hubby suggested I do something similar to this, just as well I usually ignore him! But I will be trying this as I love a quick and tasty meal and usually have these ingredients to hand:-) Thanks for linking to my Grilled Salmon:-)
Helen
I really was not at all well last week and this was such a quick, easy and strongly flavoured win
sue | theviewfromgreatisland
This is such a beautiful, convenient way to eat more fish — we’re on the same page with that today! I sometimes forget how good frozen salmon is, and I’ve heard that the best is from Iceland, I’ll look for it here in the States!
Helen
Frozen fish is so incredibly fresh, prepped and frozen within hours of coming out of the sea.
Marsha | Marsha's Baking Addiction
This sounds and looks wonderful! So delicious!
Helen
Quick and easy is my food mantra
Anne Murphy
Oh, we all need meals like that, some nights!
And I agree about the fish. I pretty much buy from the fisherman (which is a luxury I have in New York City, but even I cannot always do that) or flash frozen (definitely all Pacific fish – here, cod and salmon, especially.)
Love the idea for the sauce… So easy.
Helen
I do like an easy sauce – this one was certainly cheating.