Improve this recipe for me!

[Legend83]

I cooked Gino D'Acampo's creamy pasta with salmon the other night (as a way of trying to get salmon into my wife's diet!) but the end result was very bland if i'm honest.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/creamypastawiths...

Any ideas of what to add to give it a bit more flavour? Chilli?

[Fishtigua]

A little chilli would add an extra zing. Also, if she doesn't like it too hot, try a few drops of truffle oil.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Truffle-Oil-San-Pietro-Win...

[Bit of a Unit]

Swap the parsley for basil. Possibly add some mushrooms but up the black pepper in the sauce, will help a lot. Add Parmesan once the sauce is cooked.

[Stu R]

Lemon, basil and black pepper would liven it up a bit, salt to taste. I'd also use a bit more garlic if using that much onion but I do generally use a fair bit more than I probably should.

[Warw1ckHunt]

To me there seems to be a lot of cream in the recipe that would overpower the salmon.

Personally, I'd poach the salmon till cooked in a little milk, and substitute the cream with a light cream cheese loosened in to a sauce using a little of the poaching milk.

Then flake the salmon into the sauce and mix with pasta, garlic, onion and parsley.

[Mobile Chicane]

Substitute the parsley with dill.

Oh and sour cream for the double cream. If you don't fancy that, then single cream. Maybe it's a typo, but that is waaaay too much double cream.

Edited by Mobile Chicane on Tuesday 28th January 17:16

[ginbreakfast]

Add more salt and pepper.

Alternatively a smidge of whole grain mustard or a squeeze of lemon would help the balance.

[benters]

i would add something like chorizo or pastrami.. . .the mustard suggestion is also a contendor. . .trouble is the basic ingredients are not that strong in flavour to start with.

[bloodorange]

Sweat some leeks off in butter throw them in..
Chop some sun blush tomatoes/cherry tomatoes in at the end and stir..
A spoonful of decent pesto stirred in..
Transfer to a oven dish and grate some pecorino and sprinkle some bread crumbs and lemon rind grill until golden..
Most important thing is to check the seasoning as you go along..
If the pasta was cooked in salted water then added to seasoned cream..
Then the salmon should speak for it's self..
I haven't bothered looking at the recipe but you could always pan fry the salmon then lay it over the pasta..

Edited by bloodorange on Tuesday 28th January 18:56

Edited by bloodorange on Tuesday 28th January 18:57

[Bill]

Pasta and cream needs a surprising amount of seasoning ime.

[Stuart70]

Used to always add a shot of vodka to pasta al salmone as taught to me by a bloke from Genoa.

Though to be fair, he was a nutter. Lots of seasoning too; salt and lack pepper....

[Legend83]

Thanks all!

[rich83]

As above. More seasoning.

If you ever make something and it tastes 'flat' add salt. We always find this with curry and onion bhajis (I know they are miles apart from salmon pasta). They never taste right unless you almost over salt them

[zygalski]

Cries out for freshly squeezed lemon.

[bobbo89]

zygalski said:

Cries out for freshly squeezed lemon.

Exactly what I was thinking although it still looks a very bland recipe even with it. I'd dicth the whole idea of it being creamy though and just top it with a nice putanesca, not a fan of creamy food though.

[Sarkmeister]

I'd say replace parsley with dill and add lemon juice. Dill and salmon are a good combination.

[Legend83]

lepetitoeuf said:

I think your problem is that the recipe is from Ready, Steady Cook. Whenever searching on BBC food I always deselect that program from search results as they make up a huge amount of info on that site but many of the recipes are flawed, due to the nature of the show.

Good spot!

I will try it again with dill and lemon, maybe a touch of chilli. We like creamy pasta so worth persevering with.

[W99KSY]

when I do something similar I usually put in a bit of lemon, dill and splash of white (which I cook off a little just before adding the cream)

[RizzoTheRat]

a fairly major departure from the recipe, but would egg and parmesan instead of the cream work to make it a salmon carbonara?

[Sarkmeister]

Alternatively, I'd ditch ALL the ingredients and replace with a nice big juicy rump steak.