Creamy One-Pot Pasta With Smoked Salmon and Asparagus

This post is sponsored by Blue Circle Foods | Thanks for supporting the brands that I love + trust!

I’m kind of a smoked salmon fiend.

I eat it on bagels and avocado toast; I throw it into my smoked salmon frittata and fold it over smoked salmon crostini. Clearly, it was time I tossed the good stuff into a glorious pasta dish. Upon devouring this, I couldn’t help but wonder what took me so long.

Maybe it’s because when I think of pasta dishes, I think about warming red sauces fit for the cooler months—like robust rotini tossed in a fiery arrabbiata sauce with meaty mushrooms, or cheesy ravioli smothered in vodka sauce (yeah, I’m a savage like that). So, when I do take the time to come up with lightened up summer-inspired pasta dish, it’s a small personal victory.

Blue Circle Foods Smoked Salmon.

I’m just going to be straight with you: Blue Circle Foods offers the best smoked salmon I’ve ever had. Bold statement, I know. But it has the perfect level of smokiness; the mouthfeel is soft, silky, and wonderfully buttery. Saying I’m excited to partner up with this high five-worthy brand to bring you this recipe would be an understatement.

Blue Circle Foods’ salmon is raised in pristine Arctic waters before being gently cured under carefully controlled humidity and temperature conditions. It’s then cold-smoked, slowly, at 82° F over a fire built on locally-sourced beech wood. This gives the salmon its character; it’s subtle flavor and almost ethereal texture.

Philosophy and approach.

However! The salmon isn’t the only reason Blue Circle Foods should be your go-to—they also offer peace of mind. Their philosophy and approach is extremely commendable. In a time when people are trying to make better decisions regarding personal wellness and the state of our planet, knowing where your food comes from is crucial.

The Blue Way approach aims to supply seafood that is equally good for people as it is for the planet. (And your tastebuds.) Their commitment to conserving the balance of our oceans’ ecosystems is strong. This is important, because it’s exactly what will keep the world’s fish stock booming. To achieve this, the company only partners with fishermen and farmers who share the same vision; people who are equally steadfast in their demands for traceability, animal welfare, and food safety.

Creamy One-Pot Pasta With Smoked Salmon and Asparagus.

This recipe brings a lightened up creamy consistency to your plate with subtle smokiness, wholesome greens, and a splash of brightness. It’s really the perfect summer pasta for dining al fresco. Or! Inside and sunken into your couch. However you want to do it. This easy one-pot dinner caters to all—from chic to unfussy.

Promo code: Use FISHYFUN to get 15% off all Blue Circle Foods products on Amazon!

If you make this dish, snap a photo and tag me on the Insta @killing__thyme! I love seeing your creations, and you could be featured in my monthly newsletter <3

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5 from 15 votes

Creamy One-Pot Pasta With Smoked Salmon and Asparagus

By: Dana Sandonato

This Creamy One-Pot Pasta With Smoked Salmon and Asparagus brings bright flavors and subtle smokiness together for chic but easy weeknight dinner.

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes minutes

Resting time: 5 minutes minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

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Ingredients 

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• ▢ 1/2 lb linguini (or any long noodles like fettuccini, spaghetti, etc.)
• ▢ 2 TBSP olive oil
• ▢ 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• ▢ 1 cup diced red onion
• ▢ 1 heaping cup of roughly chopped asparagus, woody ends discarded, See notes*
• ▢ 2-3 cups vegetable broth; have extra on hand in case you need it.
• ▢ 1 small to medium-sized lemon, zested and juiced
• ▢ 1 cup of whole fat milk, You can substitute cream if you aren't trying to lighten things up
• ▢ 1/4-1/3 cup cream cheese
• ▢ 4 handfuls of baby spinach
• ▢ 2 TBSP capers, drained
• ▢ 8 oz smoked salmon, roughly chopped
• ▢ Kosher salt and cracked black pepper, to taste

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Instructions 

• Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Then, add the garlic, onions, and asparagus; sauté until the ingredients are fragrant and tender—about 5-7 minutes. Once these ingredients are tender, carefully transfer them to a bowl with a slotted spoon and cover the bowl with a plate to trap the heat. Set them aside.
• Pour two cups of the vegetable broth into that same cooking vessel and bring the broth to a simmer. Scrape any browned bits to deglaze the pan. This will add extra flavor. Add the pasta, fully immersing it (or as much as you can) into the simmering broth, and lower the heat to medium-low. Add the fresh squeezed lemon juice.
• Let the noodles simmer in the broth until they're al dente or your preference of tenderness. In general, this should take about 25 minutes. Add extra broth as needed throughout the cooking process. If you're out of broth, simply use water. The noodles soak up a lot of the liquid as they cook, so you want to keep the cooking vessel replenished with liquid until the noodles are fully cooked, otherwise you'll be frying them.
• When the noodles are near done, add the milk and the cream cheese, as well as a pinch of kosher salt and cracked black pepper. Stir well to mix and melt the cheese, and keep tossing the pasta until completely coated. Once the sauce has thickened and coated the pasta, add the cooked onion/garlic/asparagus you set aside earlier to the noodles as well as the spinach, capers, lemon zest, and smoked salmon. Toss again to distribute the ingredients throughout the pasta.
• Remove the pasta from the heat, cover it, and let it stand for five minutes. Season the pasta with extra salt and pepper if needed.
• Serve with a lemon wedge for an extra spritz of lemon, if you'd like!

Notes

With asparagus, no one knows exactly where the "woody" end starts and finishes. The best way to figure it out is to hold an asparagus spear between your fingers and snap it in half, like a twig. The asparagus spear will break exactly where it needs to, closer to the end of the spear.

Zesting a lemon is easy, but if you haven't done it before, make sure you're not zesting too hard/deeply. When zesting, you only want the very top of the skin of the citrus fruit. Don't zest any of the white part beneath it (the pith), because the pith is extremely bitter and can ruin a dish.

A tip for reheating: When it comes to reheating creamy pastas, they typically come out pretty dry. In order to revive that creaminess, place your pasta into a saucepan and heat over moderate heat. Once your pasta starts to sizzle, add 1/8-1/4 cup of milk (depending on how much pasta you're reheating), bit by bit, and let it simmer a little. The milk will loosen the creaminess that's been bound to your starchy noodles and create creamy goodness all over again. 

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