Salmon and Penne in Garlic Pesto Sauce

 There's some good recipes floating out there, if you're willing to suffer through pages of scrolling. Alternately, just find the "jump to recipe" button. While looking for inspiration for dinner, I happened across a recipe from Salt & Lavender for a salmon pasta in garlic sauce. It looked good. I decided to make it and like any good online cook, I immediately made changes without trying the original recipe. Mostly I wanted to use a jar of pesto that I've had since 2014. I also wanted way more garlic than the recipe called for. I'm sure their recipe is wonderful, and I'm sure mine is as well. Feel free to try it! I don't necessarily endorse using eight year old pesto, though.

Salmon and Penne in Garlic Pesto Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 pound penne
• 1 pound salmon fillets
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 cup chicken/vegetable stock (water will do in a pinch, but you'll lose some richness in the sauce.)
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese (I used the stuff from the container. I never have fresh on hand.)
• 1/2 cup jarred pesto (I used a walnut/oregano pesto I made back in 2014. Miraculously, we did not die.)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F (190C, Gas Mark 5)
2. According to directions on pasta box, cook penne until al dente. Drain and set aside
3. Pat salmon dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper on both sides (the salmon, not the paper towels)
4. Put salmon on baking sheet and cook in oven about 10-12 minutes, or until fish starts to get flaky. 
5. While fish is cooking, heat butter in a large pan/pot (I used a 5 quart enameled Dutch oven and needed every last bit of it) When the butter has melted and starts to bubble, add flour and mix to form a roux. Stir constantly until the roux starts to darken.
6. Add the garlic powder and keep stirring.
7. Add the stock and lemon juice. Then stir in the cream. Finally add the pesto and Parmesan. Stir until completely incorporated and just starting to bubble. 
8. Crumble the salmon in to the sauce and add the penne. Mix everything thoroughly. 

Good Times!

Recipe: Pistachio-Basil Pesto (via Rachael Ray)

     You can never go wrong with pesto. It goes with just about anything. I've used it with pasta, chicken, fish and beef. It's just incredibly versatile. I found this particular recipe in my good friend Rachael Ray's magazine. I was drawn to it because it used pistachios instead of pine nuts. I don't normally keep pine nuts in the house. I do, however, keep pistachios by the pound. We also had a huge supply of basil from the garden, so we made a lot of this.
     We did find that this is cannable! We doubled the amount of lemon juice when making the recipe for canning. We then loaded it to about 1/4" shy of the top in a half-pint jar. Process in a boiling water canner for about 15 minutes. We haven't gotten sick from it yet, even using pesto that was about a year old! Granted, if you can it and manage to get sick, obviously I never recommended canning in the first place and you probably did something wrong, so I can't be held responsible.

Pistachio-Basil Pesto
(via Rachael Ray)

Ingredients 

• 2 garlic cloves 
• ½ cup shelled pistachios 
• 2 cups loosely packed basil 
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice 
• ½ teaspoon salt 
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil 
• ¼ cup Parmigiano/Romano cheese 

Directions

1. Pulse garlic in food processor until chopped 
2. Add pistachios, basil, lemon juice and salt. Pulse until nuts are finely chopped 
3. Add olive oil gradually through food chute and process until well combined 
4. Add cheese and pulse 2 or 3 times 

Makes about 1 cup.
Per tablespoon: 70 calories, 7g fat

Good times!

Recipe Monday: Pesto Roasted Salmon with Spinach and Orzo

     This particular meal came about as a last minute change. I had originally planned on making a very rich pasta dish for dinner. I decided to go with something lighter because I ended up going out to breakfast at Huddle House and eating two sausage, egg and cheese biscuits. That burned through about half of my allotted calories for the day. The orzo still gave me my pasta fix, which was nice. I wound up substituting a pistachio-basil pesto I canned last season for the pesto mentioned in this recipe. It came out wonderfully. I'll definitely be making this again. I do so love a nice piece of fish.

Pesto Roasted Salmon with Spinach and Orzo
(via McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant Cookbook)

Ingredients
• 1 pound salmon fillets
• 3/4 cup pesto (I used a pistachio-basil pesto)
• 1 1/4 cups orzo pasta
• 5 oz. frozen, no-salt-added spinach
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Lemon slices

Pesto
• 1 cup fresh basil
• 1/4 cup freshly chopped garlic
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup Extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Combine and blend thoroughly in a blender or food processor

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. 
2. Cut salmon into 4 portions and rinse. Set aside while preparing pesto. 
3. Lightly coat baking dish with cooking spray. 
4. Pat fish dry with paper towels. Cut each salmon steak in half, removing as much of bone, cartilage and skin as possible. 
5. Coat fillets in pesto and roast for approximately 8 minutes or until the fish flakes. 
6. Meanwhile, cook orzo and spinach according to package directions. Drain pasta well. 
7. Squeeze out excess moisture from spinach then combine together with pasta. Stir in nutmeg, cheese and pepper and combine with pasta. 
8. Divide onto 4 plates. Place salmon portions on top of pasta.

Good times!

Monday Recipe: Pistachio Basil Pesto

     Sometimes all you need to put together a nice meal is a good jumping-off point. Some simple ingredient that can be used for dozens of different purposes. One of my favorites is pesto. Pesto is so simple and versatile. Now, you could be lazy and go buy a pre-made pesto from the store, but there's really no reason for that. Pesto is super easy to make. It only has a handful of ingredients and you don't need to actually cook it.

     I like this recipe a lot because I'm not a huge fan of pine nuts. I do, however, love pistachios.  Fair warning, if you make more than one batch at a time, you're likely to develop repetitive stress disorder from shelling all those pistachios. You could just buy them already shelled, but that's a bit more expensive. A two pound bag of shelled pistachio costs a dollar more than a four pound bag of unshelled. And shouldn't "shelled" mean the shell is still on, not off? Just saying.

     There's a lot you can do with this pesto. If you want to be lazy, just toss it with a little melted butter and pasta. Add some shrimp. Crust a piece of salmon. Or tofu. Throw it in some tomato soup. Eat it straight from the container with a spoon. 

     For the life of me, I can't remember where this recipe came from.  I either picked it up from Bon Appetit or my good friend Rachael Ray. 

     I don't have a picture of the pesto handy, so I'll include a grainy screencap of Pesto from the Animaniacs. Try to imagine him tossed with shrimp and rotini. Good times!

mmm...delicious

Pistachio Basil Pesto (via Bon Appetit or Rachel Ray)

Ingredients

2 garlic cloves

½ cup shelled pistachios

2 cups loosely packed basil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

¼ cup Parmigiana/Romano cheese

Directions

• Pulse garlic in food processor until chopped
• Add pistachios, basil, lemon juice and salt. Pulse until nuts are finely chopped
• Add olive oil gradually through food chute and process until well combined
• Add cheese and pulse 2 or 3 times

Makes about 1 cup.

Per tablespoon: 70 calories, 7g fat