Hey Hive!
We're back with more of our home cooking! If you're unfamiliar with this series, it's where I showcase some of the recipes we've been trying at home since we've been cooking a lot nowadays! Also I'm running out of content so yeah gotta make the most of it!
So I shared an aglio e olio recipe a couple of weeks back when I tried to make it for the first time! It was quite a simple recipe that only needed 4 ingredients: spaghetti, olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes. But I was a little skittish on the olive oil and the salt when I boiled the pasta and it ended up a little bland so this was my second attempt at getting it right!
For the accompanying meat I chose salmon since it was easy to cook and I could reuse the pan I was going to use to fry the salmon to make the aglio olio as well. So these were the ingredients I used:
- olive oil
- frozen broccoli and cauliflower
- carrots
- spaghetti
- garlic cloves (at least 5)
- sea salt
- cayenne pepper
- black pepper
- mixed herbs
- red pepper flakes
- salmon fillet
So I started by prepping the vegetables first to be boiled with the pasta.
Step 1: Wash and dice the carrots.
Step 2: Boil the vegetables in a pot of water. Remember to add a lot of salt in the water for the pasta later.
Step 3: Once the vegetables are soft enough, put the pasta in
and wait for it to soften to fit the rest into the pot.
Step 4: While waiting for the pasta to boil, prepare the salmon by slicing it into 2 strips and washing them to remove any scales.
Step 5: Pat the fillets dry with paper towels.
Step 6: Season them with salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper.
At this point I took the pasta pot and put it aside since I only have 1 stove and have to fry the salmon now, but you can just take the pasta off the stove once it's al dente.
Step 7: Heat up a wok on high heat and drizzle some olive oil. When the oil is hot, carefully place the salmon fillets into the wok skin-side down and let them cook for about 2 minutes, before flipping over and cooking for 1 minute or so.
This was my salmon fillets after I finished pan frying them. I sprinkled some herbs on top as well to garnish them.
Step 8: Mince the garlic cloves.
Step 9: Then in the same wok that I fried the salmon in, pour a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and sautee the garlic and red pepper flakes until lightly brown.
Step 10: Use tongs and toss the pasta into the wok with the garlic sauce. Add 1 cup of pasta water as well.
Mix well until the pasta is completely coated in the garlic sauce and everything is well combined. Then it was time to serve!
I scooped the pasta onto our plates and topped it with the salmon fillets and this was the result! Sean likes his salmon more crispy which is why his skin is more black. It's not burned so don't worry.
Here's a close-up of his plate. The salmon was actually cooked to perfection. The skin was crispy and the meat wasn't dry or flaky and it actually complemented the pasta really well!
And not to toot my own horn but I think I absolutely nailed the pasta this time! It was a teensy little on the salty side but I actually preferred it. It was so flavourful and not too spicy, and the salmon was so good with it! I absolutely loved this meal and I think it's probably one of the best meals I ever prepared!
And because it was olive oil and salmon it's still pretty healthy and obviously had a lot of vegetables too! It was also just the right ratio of savouriness to spiciness and was positively delicious! I'm so glad Sean liked it too! He's not normally a fan of aglio olio so I'm really glad I changed his mind on this one and he even finished his plate before me!
This is definitely one of my favourite meals that I've made and I think it's going to become one of my staples every time we have salmon. Just looking at this is making me crave it again! Definitely try this recipe if you love salmon and pasta like me!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
