Dinner Tonight: Pasta with Salmon, Peas, and Pesto Recipe

By
Blake Royer
Blake Royer is a contributing writer at Serious Eats.
Blake Royer
Blake Royer is a former chef, food blogger, and food writer who contributed recipe ideas and Chicago-based content to Serious Eats from the website’s earliest days.
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Updated August 09, 2018
20100706-dt-tagliatelle-with-spinach-peas-and-pesto.jpg
Blake Royer

When I planted a seedling of basil in my window box a couple months ago, I expected a few leaves to garnish some homemade pizza, tuck between slices of tomato, and, by the end of summer, perhaps eek out a little batch of pesto to dress an afternoon snack. But man, basil just grows; in a matter of weeks it's grown to ten times its original size and blessed me with more than one batch of pesto already.

As much as I love the simplicity of homemade pesto with al dente pasta, I found myself with a piece of wild salmon and fresh peas the other day and set out to make it into dinner. While cream would be an obvious choice for saucing the pasta, I turned to yogurt instead, building off this previous Dinner Tonight recipe. Turns out the addition of pesto into the yogurt--which is thinned with a little vegetable stock and clings to the pasta beautifully--is an unexpected but wonderful twist. It adds a lovely tang and makes the dish just that much richer than pesto alone.

Recipe Details

Dinner Tonight: Pasta with Salmon, Peas, and Pesto Recipe

Cook 20 mins
Total 20 mins
Serves 4 to 6 servings
Cook Mode (Keep screen awake)

Ingredients

  • 1 pound dried tagliatelle, or 1 1/2 pounds fresh

  • 1 pound salmon fillet

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

  • 1 cup vegetable stock

  • 4 tablespoons pesto

  • 1/2 pound frozen or fresh peas

  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt

  • 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions

  1. Bring a pot of salty water to boil. Cook the pasta until al dente if dried, tender if fresh.

  2. Meanwhile, in a second skillet or small pot, bring the stock to a boil and add the peas. Cook until the peas are tender, longer if fresh. Stir in the pesto and season with salt and pepper.

  3. In the meantime, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil, then cook the salmon skin-side up until 3/4 cooked through. Flip and finish cooking. The skin should remove easily from the fish. Discard the skin and flake the salmon gently.

  4. Drain the pasta and return to its cooking pot. Add the yogurt along with the pea and pesto mixture and the chopped parsley. Toss well to combine, then stir in the salmon chunks. Divide into bowls and serve immediately with fresh black pepper.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
375Calories
15gFat
37gCarbs
22gProtein
×
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4 to 6
Amount per serving
Calories375
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 15g19%
Saturated Fat 3g14%
Cholesterol 44mg15%
Sodium 227mg10%
Total Carbohydrate 37g14%
Dietary Fiber 4g13%
Total Sugars 5g
Protein 22g
Vitamin C 11mg55%
Calcium 97mg7%
Iron 2mg13%
Potassium 483mg10%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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