Impress friends and family by serving up this full flavoured salmon and prawn linguine recipe for dinner. Made with a lemon and cream sauce and topped with fresh dill and chilli flakes, every mouthful of this creamy salmon pasta recipe is a slurp-ful delight! Its a fantastic way to fit in a portion of oily fish and to get dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes.
Start by cooking the linguine according to the instructions on the packet. Once cooked, drain and cool but keep the pasta water to one side for adding to the sauce later.
Next preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F). Lay the salmon fillets side by side in the centre of a piece of foil and sprinkle over the dried dill.
Wrap the foil loosely around the fish leaving enough room for air to circulate around the fish whilst cooking. This will cook the fish more evenly. Place the foil package on a tray and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
Whilst the fish is cooking, start to prepare the sauce. On a medium heat gently fry the chopped garlic and shallots in 1 tablespoon of oil until soft.
Next, add 100ml of white wine to the shallots. Keep the pan on a medium heat and simmer for 30 seconds to allow the wine to reduce a little.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the creme fraiche.
Season the creamy sauce with salt, pepper and lemon juice. At this point check the consistency of the sauce, if you would like it thicker you can add a bit of flour (see further details in the notes below under 'flour').
Return the pan to a low heat and add the raw prawns. Do not allow the sauce to boil at any point. Gently cook for a minute or so until the prawns start to turn bright pink. Remove the pan from the heat again until the salmon and pasta are ready to be added.
When the salmon is cooked, remove from the oven. Gently flake the salmon with a fork and add to the sauce in the pan. Mix in gently. (Any skin on the salmon should have stuck to the foil during cooking and can now be discarded.)
Next, add the cooked linguine to the pan.
Add one or two ladles of the pasta cooking water and use tongues to mix the pasta into the sauce. Add more pasta water to further loosen the sauce if necessary.
Finally, return the pan to the stove for a final blast of heat (do not boil), then stir through freshly chopped dill and chilli flakes before serving.
Notes
Fish: If you prefer you can choose something different to salmon. Try with trout, sea bass, tuna or cod. Or alternatively leave out the salmon completely and double up the prawns to make this a prawn linguine.Prawns: This recipe uses the larger king prawns and cooks them from raw. Alternatively, substitute for cooked king prawns and add these in right at the end of the recipe before servingWhite wine: White wine adds to the flavour of the sauce, however, you can leave this out if you prefer.Pasta: This recipe uses linguine pasta, but it would also work really well with spaghetti, papardelle or tagliatelle.Creme Fraiche: I prefer to use creme fraiche rather than cream as it is lighter and its slight sour flavour helps to cut through the richness of the sauce. Creme fraiche is also less like to curdle and so produces a silky smooth sauce.Flour: This is not in the ingredients list, but its an option to use if you would like to thicken the sauce. After the creme fraiche is added, check the consistency of the sauce, if you would like it thicker then add in 1 tablespoon flour. Mix the flour with a bit of cold water to create a paste and then pour in to the pan. Heat gently and stir continuously until the sauce thickens.Expert tips:
Once the linguine has been removed from its cooking pan, set the pasta water to one side until the dish is nearly cooked. At this point check the sauce and add more of the starchy pasta water if necessary. This water will mix with the creme fraiche to create a lovely light sauce which clings to the pasta. The water can be added at any point to help loosen up the sauce and stop it from drying up.
For ease, I use tongues to take the linguine straight out of its cooking water and into the pan. This is quicker and cleaner than draining and also means some of the starchy, cooking water also gets transferred at the same time.
To make your salmon and prawn linguine a little more exciting why not try it with homemade pasta. Making your own pasta is super easy and all you need is eggs and flour.
Prawns are so easy to cook but can very quickly become overcooked. In this recipe the best way to achieve perfectly cooked king prawns is to add them raw to the warm sauce and heat gently for a minute or so. As you add the remaining ingredients and give the dish a final blast of heat the warmth from the sauce will gently cook the prawns to perfection. You known the prawns are done when they start to curl together and become bright pink.