Smoked Salmon Pasta

Simple and irresistibly delicious, these Smoked Salmon Pasta combine smoked fish with a creamy sauce of lemon and fresh dill.

It’s hard to get tired of the rich, buttery goodness of smoked salmon — it goes great with everything from bagels to dips to appetizers. Here’s the new way we fell in love: Pasta with smoked salmon! Imagine: fluffy al dente pasta bathed in a creamy sauce punctuated with bright lemon zest and herbaceous fresh dill. It’s hard not to fall for it! It’s extremely versatile: try it as a simple dinner, a fun brunch idea, or a pasta salad for a picnic.

Ingredients of this pasta with smoked salmon

Designed to be a quick and easy meal, these smoked salmon pasta uses a protein that absolutely cannot be cooked: smoked salmon! It’s easy to toss into pasta after baking and use cream cheese to make a quick, creamy sauce. Here’s what you need:

• Smoked salmon: Look for cold smoked salmon or smoked salmon (which has a soft texture), not hard smoked (which is flaky and more like cooked salmon)
• Short pasta such as penne, rigatoni or farfalle
• cream cheese
• olive oil
• Grated parmesan
• garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper
• Lemon peel
• fresh dill

Pasta tips with smoked salmon

This recipe is as easy as it gets: cook pasta, add sauce ingredients, stir and add smoked salmon! There are a few things to note about the method and what to expect. Here’s what you need to know:

• Be sure to cook the pasta al dente. It means “through the bite” in Italian: ideally when it’s tender and has a little white spot inside when you bite into a piece. Cook it a few minutes less than the package directions say and test the flavor early!
• Save pasta water! This ingredient is used to make a creamy sauce. It’s easy to forget (I’ve been there) so my mom shared a tip with us. Place a liquid measuring cup in your strainer. When you toss the noodles, you’ll remember to remove the liquid!
• Texture is best when served immediately. These smoked salmon pasta tastes best when the pasta is freshly cooked and hot: especially since you’ll be using the pasta water to make the sauce. You can eat it later, but its texture will be drier. More on that below!

leftovers and storage instructions

Do you want to save the smoked salmon pasta for later or make it ahead of time? Here’s what you need to know:

• Advice in advance: The best way to prepare in advance? Measure out all of the ingredients for your sauce and place in a covered container in the refrigerator. Then cook the pasta and pour in when ready to serve.
• Leftovers will dry out by cooling. They’ll keep in the fridge for up to 3 days, but you’ll notice the texture getting drier. You can reheat the pasta with some water on the stovetop and revive the flavors with a pinch or two of salt.

And that’s it! We hope you enjoy these Smoked Salmon Pasta as much as we do. It’s gone very quickly at a dinner we cooked for my parents the other day!

More smoked salmon recipes

Smoked Salmon is great for quick and easy meals as it’s a healthy protein that doesn’t need to be cooked! Here are some of our best smoked salmon recipes:

This smoked salmon pasta recipe is…

pescetarian. For gluten-free pasta, use gluten-free pasta.