A lighter linguine with added spiralized courgette, served with prawns, chilli and coriander
Salmon and prawn linguine is definitely happening now that Summer is well underway. The sauce for this recipe (which is ridiculously easy by the way) is packed full of tomatoey and coriander goodness, which gently coats the linguine, making every mouthful of this dish a slurpful delight! To top it off this dish also contains plenty of good fats from the oily salmon fillets and with a spiralizer on hand you can have as much or as little pasta as you want and make up the rest with curly courgette.
The spiralizer; I won’t say that this is something I use every day, in fact I hardly ever use it. I have yet to join the craze I think, although it does have its uses and this meal is definitely one of them. However, as spiralizing is a rarity in our house; my spiralizer isn’t a big fancy one with a turning handle, in fact its more like a large pencil sharpener. It does a pretty good job though and strips away the whole outer layer of the courgette and turns it into lovely thick curls. Maybe one day I’ll progress to a real one but for now I’m happy with my oversized pencil sharpener come curler.
So anyway back to this wonderful linguine with all its summery flavours and extra good, nutritious fatty acids. The origins of my version of this supercharged dish come from our first trip to Italy, where we watched a chef cook up a simple spaghetti with fresh tomatoes, basil and capers – so, so easy that it sounds like theres not enough ingredients to make it taste good. But trust me this combination with a little starchy water just sings summer in a bowl to me. Starchy water!? … the water that the linguine is cooked in is actually the best base for our tomato sauce and if you don’t already incorporate some of this fantastic water into your dishes then you’ll be truly amazed how just a ladle or two creates a sauce so silky and light that you’ll wonder why you haven’t been using this great bit of magic water all along.
Piled high with plenty of summery flavours this is the perfect dish to kick off some alfresco dining.
It’s also great recovery food after any high intensity exercise, so a big bowl of this perfect pasta was just what we needed a couple of weeks ago the day after completing the Manchester 10K. It was a great day and we got pretty lucky with the weather, sunny but not too warm. Definitely something I’ll do again, although if you’d asked me when I was half way around I’d probably have said “never again!!”. But it was a great feeling when I crossed the finished line and next time I would actually have a PB to aim for.
Pre-race piccie
And now I’ve ran the farthest I’ve ever ran, I’ve gone right back to not running at all. Not really what I intended. But so long as some good food came out of it, I’m not going to worry too much 🙂
Salmon and Prawn Linguine with chilli, coriander and spiralized courgette
Ingredients
- 2 boneless Salmon fillets
- 3 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 tsp ground Coriander
- Salt and pepper
- 200 g linguine
- 1 Courgette spiralized
- 1 fresh red chilli finely chopped
- 2 cm piece of Ginger grated
- 1 tsp Capers
- 5 or 6 medium sized chestnut mushrooms sliced
- Handful of red baby tomatoes halved
- 150 g fresh raw King Prawns
- Juice of one Lime
- Handful of fresh coriander chopped
- Extra Coriander and lime wedges to serve
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Remove any skin from the salmon fillets and place in the centre of a piece of foil. Drizzle with a tbsp of olive oil and season with salt and pepper and a tsp of ground coriander. Loosely wrap the foil around the fish, place on a baking tray and cook in the centre of the oven for 17 minutes. Once cooked, leave wrapped in the foil and place to one side whilst the rest of the dish is prepared.
- Cook the linguine according to packet instructions. Whilst the linguine is cooking heat up 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large frying pan or wok and stir fry the courgette, chilli, grated ginger, mushrooms and tomatoes. Next and the prawns and capers and toss all the ingredients together continue to stir and toss until the prawns turn bright pink. The juice from the cooked tomatoes will begin to coat the rest of ingredients.
- Next transfer the linguine to the stir fry pan and toss in with the vegetables. I use tongues to take the linguine straight out of its cooking water and into the stir fry pan. This is quicker and cleaner than draining and also means some of the starchy, cooking water also gets transferred. This water will mix with the tomato juice to create a lovely light sauce which clings to the pasta.
- Finish of the dish by flaking up the cooked salmon and adding to the pan along with chopped coriander and lime juice. Stir and toss well before serving up in large bowls along with fresh coriander and lime wedges.
