SMOKED SALMON, CREME FRAICHE & DILL PASTA

Arabella loves pasta with smoked salmon but Pascal hates it so this was the perfect recipe to make whilst he was away. I wasn't very keen on having pasta as I always think carbs are "bad" and I am trying to be "good" at the moment, however I was very pleasantly surprised to see that this was only 300 calories a portion…..and for once I didn't need to add cheese.

I found this recipe in the Saturday Times magazine at my friend Nicci's house, last weekend - I think she thought I was a bit of a nutcase as I was photographing the recipe pages but it was definitely worth it and there will be more to come!

Ingredients for 2 people:

150g fresh pasta (I used tagliatelle but whatever you prefer)
100g smoked salmon (trimmings are fine)
2 tbsp creme fraiche (I used half fat)
Salt and black pepper
A few sprigs of dill

Boil the kettle for the pasta / boil the water in a pan. If you have fresh pasta it will only take 3-4 minutes however if you use dried it will take longer, maybe 11 minutes. If that is the case you will need to start cooking that first and go onto the next stage after about 5 minutes. 

If you don't have trimmings, snip the smoked salmon into small strips and put them in a small saucepan with the creme fraiche and plenty of black pepper.

Set the pan on the lowest possible heat and warm the ingredients so the creme fraiche melts and the salmon turns pale pink. You don't want it to boil and if it does just turn the heat off.

While this is cooking start the fresh pasta in salted boiling water.

When the pasta is ready remove half a ladle of cooking water (40ml) and add it to the small pan with the sauce.

Drain the pasta into a colander, tip it into a large serving bowl and pour the sauce over the top and then mix well. 

Using scissors snip the dill straight into the pasta and voila. Serve immediately.

What a simple but delicious meal. Very easy to cook and very yummy to eat. I will definitely be making this again. When discussing it with Pascal he said he would eat this but exchange the smoked salmon for tuna so we will definitely try that. Another alternative would be to add frozen peas or sweetcorn to the sauce before you add the pepper. Plus it would go nicely with a green salad as is not the biggest portion (probably why it is so low in calories)! Lots of play around with….a great way to cook pasta.