30 Aug 2015

Pasta with Gravlax


This is an easy and super fast, yet absolutely delicious pasta dish. I have been eating salt cured salmon as long as I can remember and I still can´t get enough of it. It´s absolutely one of the highlights of Nordic cuisine.

If you want to make gravad lax yourself, it´s quite simple to do. There are a lot of different recipes, but I use coarse sea salt, some sugar and fresh dill.

For a small piece of trimmed salmon fillet (300 - 500 g) you dont´t really need to measure the the ingredients.

Just add a thin layer of coarse sea salt on a parchment paper. Place the salmon fillet skin side up on the salt and press lightly. Turn fillet and sprinkle over about a half teaspoon of sugar and coarsely chopped dill.

Put the fish in a glass dish skin side up and cover with a piece of parchment paper and cling film. Add a small weight over the fish. (400 g can of tomatoes etc.) Put the dish in the fridge and cure for 18 – 24 hours.

1 portion

75 – 100 g pasta

80 – 100 g gravlax or cold smoked salmon
1 small spring onion
1 tbsp capers
black pepper
chili flakes
lemon
olive oil

Cook the pasta following pack instructions. Since capers and salmon are very salty, it´s better to use less salt in cooking water than normally.

While the pasta is cooking, sweat thinly sliced onions in a small splash of olive oil over a medium heat until just tender. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Once pasta is cooked, drain, and tip it into the pan. Add thinly sliced salmon and capers. Mix and season to taste with lemon juice and black pepper.

Serve immediately.