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. 

Whole Whitefish with Potatoes, Tomatoes and Olives

This Mediterranean inspired whitefish recipe is super easy and colourful, packed with bold flavours and fresh ingredients. The fish is seasoned with lemon and thyme, a classic Mediterranean combination that goes well with whitefish.

serves 2

1 whole whitefish, about 400 - 500g

8 small boiled potatoes

half of a small fennel

6 – 8 cherry tomatoes

1 garlic clove

2 spring onions

10 – 12 olives

1 tbsp small capers

½ lemon

2 - 3 sprigs of thyme

1 dl white wine

salt and black pepper

olive oil

a small bunch of fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 200° C.

Cut the potatoes and tomatoes in half. Thinly slice the fennel, garlic and spring onion.

In a baking dish, mix potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, fennel, olives, capers and half of the onions together. Drizzle generously with olive oil and season with a little salt and pepper, adding a squeeze of lemon juice. Sprinkle half of the thyme on top.

Rinse and dry the fish, then rub with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Stuff the fish with lemon slices and rest of the thyme. Lay the fish on top of the potatoes and other ingredients.

Bake 5 minutes, add wine and bake 15 – 20 minutes until the fish is just cooked through. Scatter over remaining spring onions and parsley before serving. Delicious.