Pasta tossed with a creamy parmesan sauce and flakes of salmon. Alfredo pasta made the real proper restaurant way, you only need 1/2 cup of cream to serve 3. It’s simple, it’s magic, it’s the way real Italian pastas are made. No need to drown this salmon pasta in cream!
I’ve written before about the “proper” way to make pastas. The way Italian Nonna’s do. The way real Italian restaurants do.
It’s not about using loads and loads of sauce. The magic step that makes all the difference between a decent pasta and a really great one is tossing the pasta gently with the sauce and some of the pasta cooking water, just before serving.
What this does is activate the starch in the water and it mingles with the oil in the sauce, so it becomes glossy and luscious and coats every strand of pasta. It’s called emulsification, and it’s the real-deal-proper-way to make pasta.
Gone are the days of dumping of pile of pasta in a bowl and spooning over loads of sauce! And especially for creamy pastas, it’s an important step because that’s how to make less cream go further.
Hence you can indulge in this creamy Alfredo Salmon Pasta without using an entire tub of cream. 🙂
Cream does not make my weekly shopping basket. In fact, I very rarely cook with cream. But I had leftovers from Christmas, and used some to make a Creamy Lemon Chicken and the rest for this.
It’s been over 6 months since I shared a creamy pasta made with cream so I figure I’m due!!
I made this salmon pasta using hot smoked salmon which I purchased already smoked. I have attempted smoking my own salmon before, without success. I need to practice!!!
However, this will be really lovely made with plain cooked salmon too, and I’ve provided directions for this in the recipe. The sauce is so beautifully creamy, it really doesn’t matter whether the salmon is smoked or not. But the hot smoked salmon definitely adds an edge to the flavour!
Now, enough with the chatter. Who wants some Alfredo Salmon Pasta? – Nagi x
More ways to get your creamy pasta fix!
Fettucine Alfredo – also see One Pot Chicken Alfredo Pasta
Baked Mac and Cheese – and try the Shrimp version!
Browse all pasta recipes
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Salmon Alfredo Pasta
Ingredients
- 8 oz / 250g dried fettuccine
- 3 tbsp / 50g unsalted butter
- 1 small shallot (US) / eschallot (Australia), very finely minced (Note 1)
- ½ cup / 125 ml heavy cream (Note 2)
- ¾ cup / 185 ml freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano or parmesan (Notes 3 and 4)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Good grind of black pepper
- 6-7 oz / 180 – 200g hot smoked salmon fillet , flaked (Note 5)
Garnish
- Fresh parsley (optional)
- Extra Parmigiano Reggiano
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the fettuccine and cook until al dente (still firm but just cooked through). (Note 6)
- Meanwhile, melt the butter in a deep fry pan over medium high heat. (Note 7)
- Add the shallots and sauté for 2 minutes or until tender.
- Add the cream and bring to boil. Turn heat down to medium low and simmer for 3 minutes.
- Remove the fry pan from the heat and stir through the Parmigiano Reggiano, salt and pepper until the sauce is smooth.
- TAKE OUT 1/2 cup of pasta water PLUS scoop out an extra mug (extra, just in case). Then drain the pasta in a colander.
- Transfer the pasta and 1/2 cup of reserved pasta water into the fry pan with the sauce. Add salmon. Return the fry pan to the stove over medium heat. Toss very gently to coat the pasta in the sauce and allow the sauce to emulsify (Note 6) for 1 1/2 – 2 minutes, until the sauce coats the pasta – there should be no sauce pooled at the bottom of the skillet. (Note 7)
- Remove from the stove and serve immediately, garnished with extra Parmigiano Reggiano and fresh parsley, if using.
Recipe Notes:
Delicious and easy, thank you again Nagi.
This is a fantastic recipe, love it.
A lovely easy recipe. A squeeze of lemon, once plated, made it superb. Also, as mentioned below, 3/4 cup grated parmesan is roughly 60 grams.
Made this tonight with our own cooked salmon – I used cajun spices as others have suggested. It was amazing! Subtle but creamy & decadent. Loved it!
Had rainbow trout in the fridge that was meant to be used for a poke bowl a day ago and didn’t want it to spoil. Your recipes are always a go to and this didn’t disappoint! My family said it was better than their fav restaurant salmon pasta. The parsley is a must, it adds a citrus note. Only had onion and coconut cream at hand, so I can’t wait to make this again with the original ingredients. Thanks!
Added Cajun spices to the salmon- I cedar plank cooked it in toaster oven because it’s hot here in SoCal. My son said at his tasting “you better leave me a while porta that” . I’m taking mine to my bingo friends. This is great starter recipe to run with…..
OMG – do die for! Reminded me of a dish I used to order at a Cicciolinia in St Kilda. Only I think this was better! Thanks Nagi
I loved this! I did season the salmon with some cajun seasoning but not too much. I’ve made alfredo before but didn’t realize I needed to take the sauce off the burner to really let the cheese melt. Much better this way!
We enjoyed this dinner immensely. We had everything on hand except for the hot smoked salmon. The prior day we had poached a couple of pieces of sockeye and used them instead. Also used 4 oz of fettuccine since there were two of us. Served it with an arugula salad.
I made this for lunch. It was so delicious! I really loved the onion in the sauce. I pan-fried my salmon and served it alongside. This is definitely going into our regular rotation.
I said I was cooking salmon tonight and my son doesn’t like plain old salmon on a plate so he asked could I do pasta. Of course I immediately go to your page, cooking tonight 🤞🙏 Am sure we will all love it. 🥰
I made this meal, I loved it I didn’t have exactly everything but it was still great! And definitely worth a try
I made the alfredo salmon fettuccini tonight. It was AWESOME! I saw several other dishes that looked gorgeous on your website.
So,,,the wife wanted pasta…an this looked good…..But man was this good….Couldn’t do “smoked”…Morocco….so went with Atlantic….an boy it was still good….Thanx Nagi 🙂
Dozer 🙂
Delicious!!!!!! 5 Stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I added a cup of green peas (from frozen.) so yummy!
Hey Nagi, can you use tinned salmon for this? Want to give it a crack today.
It’s a great recipe! So easy so tasty. I fried up some capers to add on top and I added dill too.
This turned out to be a hit with my family, it was absolutely delicious. I added a little bit of mozzarella cheese just because we like it. . I will definitely make this again.
Mystery solved.
We made the Alfredo Salmon Pasta a couple of nights ago. It says 3/4 cup parmesan but when we weighed it out it comes to only 85 gm and not the 185 gm mentioned in the recipe. I think the 185 gm could be a typo in your recipe so we used just the 3/4 cup. A lovely recipe too, by the way but it may not have been had we used 185 gm parmesan, ha ha!.
It’s 185 milliliters, no grams! I almost made the same mistake. It’s a bit odd to use milliliters to measure cheese haha