Recipe by Marcus Webb · Serves 4 · Easy
Why this pasta works
Weeknight pasta lives or dies on the sauce, and this one is nearly foolproof: butter, lemon, garlic and a ladle of starchy pasta water whisked into silk. Crisp-skinned salmon laid over the top keeps its crunch instead of dissolving into flakes.
Everything happens in one pan while the pasta boils. From fridge to table in barely half an hour.
Prep10 min
Cook25 min
Serves4
LevelEasy
Ingredients
- 400g tagliatelle or pappardelle
- 4 salmon fillets, skin on, pin-boned
- 80g butter, 3 garlic cloves, sliced
- Zest and juice of 2 lemons
- 50g parmesan, finely grated
- Dill and parsley, chopped, to serve
Method
1
Boil the pasta. Salt the water generously and cook until one minute shy of the packet time. Save a mug of pasta water.
2
Crisp the salmon. Skin-side down in a hot oiled pan, press flat for 30 seconds, cook 5 minutes without moving, flip for 1 minute.
3
Build the sauce. In the same pan, melt butter, soften garlic, add lemon zest and juice plus a ladle of pasta water.
4
Emulsify. Toss the drained pasta through with parmesan, loosening with more water until glossy.
5
Rest the fish. Let the salmon rest 2 minutes so the juices settle and the skin stays crisp.
6
Plate. Twirl pasta into bowls, top with salmon, herbs and an extra squeeze of lemon.
Kitchen notes
Do not move the fish
Skin crisps through steady contact. Touch it once — to flip — and not before.
Water is the sauce
Starchy pasta water turns butter and lemon into a clinging sauce instead of a puddle.
Zest before juice
Zest carries the aroma, juice the bite. You need both — in that order of generosity.
