Salmon-asparagus and pasta 8-21

I cannot walk through the produce section without buying asparagus; it calls out to me…”hey Bill…over here. I’m waiting for you to nuke me, drizzle me with olive oil and fresh lemon juice and…well…you know the rest”, and of course I do, a scrumptious lunch with fresh tomato slices, mozzarella cheese, and basil.



Why am I telling you all of this? Because it’s time to think about tonight’s pasta dinner and I have asparagus that must be used. The challenge is avoiding the usual routine…asparagus and salmon in a lemon cream sauce. I plan to borrow shamelessly from our friend Paul who recently served us a pasta dish where a chicken breast with a light sauce was served on the same plate as the pasta, but on the side, not incorporated into it as a sauce. Instead of chicken I’ll use a salmon fillet under a bed of asparagus in a lemon butter sauce. The pasta will be in a simple olive oil and lemon sauce with a bit of garlic and black pepper.



INGREDIENTS:

Salmon fillets
Asparagus
Shallots, garlic
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Fresh basil, dill, and parsley
Butter
White wine

PROCESS:

I got a little stressed out trying to establish the timing on this meal…I tend to do that so I prepared all the ingredients in advance. After placing the pasta in the pasta water I sautéed the garlic and shallots, and quickly added the asparagus, herbs, butter, and a splash of white wine. After 4-5 minutes I added the salmon and lemon juice. When the pasta was cooked (al dente) I placed it in a bowl and added finely chopped garlic, parsley, olive oil, and fresh lemon juice and black pepper.

COMMENTS:

This was great. Believe it or not, I’ve never prepared the pasta this way…it was basically Aglio Olio with lemon. This opens the door to an entirely new genre of dishes…. Thanks Paul.