Cooking In, Lunch, Quick PostKerry Alaric CheeseboroApril 21, 2010butter, fettucine, fillet, funghi, juice, lemon, mushroom, nuts, oil, olive, paprika, pasta, pistachios, porcini, salmon, taglialiniComment

Quick Post | Fun with Funghi

Sautéed Salmon over Porcini Mushroom Tagliolini with Pistachios in a Lemon·Mustard Butter

THERE IS A GREAT BRAND of flavored pastas; that brand is Tarall'Oro Lavorazione Artigianale. And these colored pastas are naturally flavored, so they also take on the color of what they are flavored with, whether it be basil, red pepper, salmon, or even porcini mushroom, which was the flavor of tagliolini (a kind of grooved fettucine) I picked up at Food Emporium.

Having discovered these pastas on a previous visit, I knew my whole plan for lunch by the time I got home. I brought some salted water to a boil, and dumped in half a container of the pasta. I seasoned a skinless fillet of salmon with salt, pepper and paprika and gently laid it in a preheated skillet with hot olive oil. I cooked the first side for about 4 minutes, then giving it a gentle flip and cooking on the other side for about 3 minutes.

This pasta cooked al dente in just about the same amount of time, so I drained it. I removed the salmon from the skillet, then deglazed the oil and pan drippings with several squeezes of a lemon, rendering and dissolving any solid bits. I then stirred in two tablespoons of dijon mustard, a tablespoon of soy sauce, and two tablespoons of butter, stirring that into a nice sauce.

I then threw in about a cup of (shelled) pistachio nuts,tossing them in the sauce to get them warm, then throwing in the pasta, giving the whole thing several good tosses to reduce the butter sauce enough to just coat the noodles.

I plated the pasta, then the salmon on top, with a garnish of balsamic vinegar-tossed arugula. And then I had fun...!