Life, it seems, has taken a really positive turn of events. Up until about 3 weeks ago, (and to be honest, a pretty awful 2015 to date) I was a little uncertain as to the direction my professional life was taking (as I have made a total of £0.17 revenue in Amazon affiliate commission from Love the Kitchen, it is not exactly something which will keep the wine rack stocked up, that’s for sure!). A new full time role was offered to me, and I started just a week ago. Great colleagues, an amazing product portfolio, and some very European colleagues to work with – and a great opportunity to whop out my language skills. The minor wobble in all of this – the job is about 185 miles from home, and I am going to have an interesting balance between working from home, and a number of office locations.
Why this preamble? – well, my personal intention is to find as many really tasty recipes which can be made as quickly as possible in the least amount of time possible. Pasta, is a pretty good start. Equally, I am trying to find as many ways of reducing the amount of washing up required – availability of time is going to be an even greater challenge than before. I returned home quite late (courtesy of signal failure- what else) – had not been home for a week and went on a fridge-freezer raid to find some good ingredients for a new concoction. Whilst it is highly possible that my every day ingredients may deviate slightly from yours, I try and keep a few stock items around – smoked salmon being one of them (it freezes really well and with some encouragement, will defrost pretty quickly). I had a slightly tired bunch of spring onions in the vegetable drawer, and after peeling off the slightly more tired layers were absolutely fine. I do find smoked salmon to be a really versatile ingredient – feel free to check out: Smoked salmon, spinach and poached egg bagel; Scrambled egg and smoked salmon tortilla wrap; Smoked salmon, artichoke and red onion pizza; Smoked Salmon, Dill, and Red Onion Omelette, and Asparagus and Smoked Salmon Bundle.
Having spent a week eating out every evening and hemorrhaging cash almost at a rate faster than a obscenely overpaid premiership football player in a luxury car dealership (or so it felt), it was great to be able to whip up a really flavoursome meal for about £5. Better still, all in the space of about 25 minutes. On a final note, it is often my intention to minimise the sometimes prolific list of kitchen equipment and utensils required to knock out the simplest of meals at times. What is the point spending 20 mins cooking,and 40 mins clearing up afterwards? My approach is to reuse pans etc where I can – and this is no exception. Anyhow, I hope this smoked salmon, spring onion, and caper linguine dish makes it on your list of fast weekday evening suppers.

Smoked salmon, spring onion, and caper linguine
Ingredients
- dried linguine or spaghetti
- pack smoked salmon cut into thin strips
- zest half lemon
- 1 clove garlic thinly sliced
- 1 x tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 4 x spring onions trimmed and sliced
- 1 x tbsp non-pareil capers drained
- 1/4 dried chilli flakes optional
- 100 ml light single cream
- splash vodka
- freshly milled black pepper
- fresh parsley and wedge of lemon to garnish.
Instructions
- Bring a large pan salted water to the boil, and cook linguine for 10-12 minutes, or until al dente.
- Once cooked, remove from heat, drain in a colander, and set aside.
- Whilst the pasta is cooking, thinly slice the garlic, zest the lemon, drain the non pareil capers, and slice the smoked salmon.
- Rinse the pan used to cook the pasta (to remove any traces of starch), and heat up 1 x tbsp olive oil. Add the garlic, lemon zest, chilli flakes, spring onions and sweat for 2 - 3 minutes. Then, add the the non-pareil capers, cook for 30 seconds then add the slices of smoked salmon and cook for 1-2 mins.
- Add the vodka, stir around all the ingredients until the liquid starts to bubble, then add the cream and turn down the heat slightly. Once cream has warmed through, turn off the heat and add the linguine. Stir through thoroughly, and season with freshly ground black pepper.
- Divide equally into two pasta bowls, and garnish with a wedge of lemon and fresh parsley.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Having just made and eaten this recipe I could be convinced right now that you’re the next Nigel Slater. Cheers mate, thanks for saving my life tonight 🙂
Hi Jilian. Many thanks for your kind works. I am so pleased that you liked it.
What a compliment to be compared to one of my many food heroes, Nigel Slater. All I can ask is that you spread the word. ;o)
You’ll be pleased to know that coming really soon is another quick and delicious seafood pasta recipe.. I hope it’ll be live tomorrow.
Thanks again! Richard.
Never thought of adding the capers to this . But very Italian! Pared the quantities down a little, and this made a lovely supper for one, may even get my pasta hating partner eating this !
Hi Fran. Many thanks for your positive feedback – so glad it worked for you (and hopefully your pasta hating partner in due course ;o).
the reason for the inclusion of capers was that I made a starter of cold smoked salmon with a sauce meuniere with capers, and thought that capers were a worthy inclusion in a main dish too. By choice, I always try to source the non-pareille capers.