I read an article some months ago in the Listener about smoked salmon – in fact, now that I come to write this post, I find myself googling it – it turns out the article is available here. It’s a great introduction to salmon if you’re new to cooking with it.

We don’t eat a lot of hot smoked salmon – it is rather expensive as far as meat and fish go – but for every once in a while, it’s a really healthy option, it doesn’t require cooking, and tastes like luxury.

At the time of reading the article, I was seduced by the fresh-sounding flavours in the recipe for a ‘hot smoked salmon salad with hints of Asia’, and cut it out. It’s a recipe for a dinner party entrée-type salad with cos leaves, hot smoked salmon and salmon caviar. Reading back I now see it was invented for a ladies’ golf tournament at the Sheraton in Fiji, which is rather a different setting to my brief: at home in Porirua on a Friday night.

As you can appreciate, the dinner party entrée feeling quickly fell by the wayside, but I adapted the dressing into a pasta sauce and added in some extra veges, and lo, Friday night dinner was born. I love the asian flavours in Lauraine Jacobs’ dish, so kept all of those in.

If you’re looking for an easy, healthy, tasty, weeknight meal, but still something classy, this is a great option. Or, feel free to mess around with quantities and keep it as a dinner party entree, either as a pasta dish, or returning it to its original salad form.

Hot Smoked Salmon Pasta with Asian Flavours
Serves 4. Adapted from this recipe by Lauraine Jacobs.

Dressing/Sauce:
Note: you may like to increase this recipe if you like very ‘saucy’ pasta.
4cm piece of fresh ginger, roughly chopped
stalk of lemongrass, bruised and roughly chopped
6 peppercorns
1 small fresh red chilli (tip: I have a huge bag of little red chillies in my freezer from Moore Wilson’s; I use them for everything)
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp rice (or red) wine vinegar
pinch finely grated palm sugar
1 lime, finely grated zest and juice
2 Tbsp avocado (or olive) oil

Place the ginger, lemongrass, peppercorns and chilli into a food processor and whiz until finely chopped. I am lucky and have a tiny whiz designed for just this. If you don’t, just finely grate the ginger, pound the peppercorns in a mortar and pestle, finely chop the lemongrass and chilli, and mix all together.  Add the fish sauce, vinegar, palm sugar, lime zest and juice, and oil, and either whiz again or mix well together. Season and set aside.

Pasta:
280g pasta, fresh or dried, over to you
4 shallots, finely sliced
2 courgettes (zucchini), sliced diagonally
2-3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
baby spinach leaves
200g wood roasted/hot smoked salmon (I used Aorangi this time)
2 limes, cut in wedges, to serve (not crucial)
chopped fresh coriander, to garnish

Cook pasta according to packet directions. Meanwhile, spray a frying pan with a little oil, and gently cook the shallots and courgettes over medium heat, adding splashes of vinegar as required, just to keep them moist, soft and delicious. Once they’re just tender, add the spinach leaves and just stir over gently heat until the leaves wilt. Place the cooked and drained pasta in shallow bowls (toss with a little oil here if you feel it is deeply necessary), and arrange the courgette mixture on top. Gently flake the salmon into pieces and top the pasta with it, and drizzle the dish with dressing. Serve with lime wedges and garnish with chopped coriander.