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Salmon Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce and Spinach - quick and easy dinner made in 30 minutes! Pan-seared salmon is combined with the delicious penne in a flavorful, restaurant-quality cream sauce.
Salmon is a great fish to cook with! It's flavorful, flaky and packed with omega-3 fatty acids. My favorite salmon recipes include cilantro lime honey garlic salmon and Tuscan salmon. In this elegant dish, I combined pan-seared salmon together with the most amazing cream sauce and pasta.
It's a comfort food that a whole family will love! Salmon pasta is also great for using up any leftover cooked salmon you might have.
The cream sauce is made with garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, paprika, red pepper flakes, and heavy cream. And, when you add freshly wilted spinach to the mix, you get the best salmon pasta you'll ever try! Even if you have overcooked salmon - the cream sauce will fix that and make salmon taste moist and tender!
Salmon pasta: easy and flexible recipe
- Pan-seared or roasted salmon. Cook the salmon any way you like for this recipe! Pan sear salmon in a skillet or roast it in the oven. It's up to you!
- Use any type of pasta. Short pasta, such as penne, bow tie or ziti will work great. Long strand pasta, such as spaghetti or fettuccine, will work equally well.
- Perfect for leftovers. Have leftover cooked salmon? Add it to this creamy pasta! The cream sauce will make leftover salmon taste amazing, even if the salmon is overcooked.
- The cream sauce is what makes this pasta really special. This sauce is full of flavor, made with garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, red pepper flakes, paprika, and spinach.
Substitutions
- What other fish can you use? This recipe will work great with either salmon or trout.
- Make this salmon pasta gluten-free by using gluten-free pasta!
- What other veggies will work? You can use Swiss chard, kale or arugula instead of spinach.
Tips and tricks
- Use skin-on salmon fillets. Do not remove the skin. It's much easier to cook salmon with skin still on. It also helps prevent salmon from drying out during cooking. And, it's much easier to remove the skin, once the salmon is cooked. Just slide the spoon between the skin and the flesh of cooked salmon to remove the skin.
- Use sun-dried tomatoes in oil.
- Use paprika generously. It adds lots of flavor as well as beautiful color to your salmon pasta.
What to serve with salmon pasta
- Simple green salad, such as spinach or arugula salad tossed with olive oil and lemon juice.
- Garlic bread or baguette.
How to make salmon pasta
- First, pan-sear salmon seasoned with salt in olive oil in a large skillet. Sear salmon fillets for about 4-5 minutes on each side on medium-high heat until salmon is flaky.
- Remove salmon from the skillet.
- Remove skin from the salmon. Slice salmon into big chunks.
- Next, make the cream sauce. In the same skillet, cook chopped sun-dried tomatoes and minced garlic. Add spinach and cook until the spinach wilts, for a couple of minutes.
- Then, add 1 cup of heavy cream, paprika, red pepper flakes. Simmer for about 1 minute, stirring.
- Cook penne pasta according to package instructions. Drain.
- Finally, assemble the dish. Add cooked and drained pasta to the skillet with the cream sauce.
- Then, add salmon chunks to the creamy pasta.
- Season with salt, if needed.
Other salmon recipes
- Cilantro Lime Honey Garlic Salmon (baked in foil)
- Creamy Tuscan Salmon with Spinach and Artichokes
- Garlic Parmesan Crusted Salmon and Asparagus
Other pasta dishes that you can serve with salmon
- Farfalle with Spinach, Mushrooms, and Caramelized Onions
- Fusilli with Spinach, Artichokes, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
- Linguine with Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
Salmon Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce and Spinach
Ingredients
Salmon
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound salmon fillets
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Cream Sauce
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- ¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped
- 5 oz spinach fresh
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- ⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Pasta
- 8 oz penne
Instructions
How to sear salmon
- Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat.
- Season salmon fillets with salt.
- When the oil is hot, add salmon fillets flesh side down (skin side up). Sear for about 4 minutes on medium-high heat.
- Reduce heat to medium.
- Flip the salmon fillets to the other side (skin side down). Sear for another 4 or 5 minutes on medium heat until salmon is flaky.
- Remove salmon from the skillet.
How to make a cream sauce
- To the same, now empty, skillet, add chopped sun-dried tomatoes and minced garlic. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
- Add fresh spinach, and continue cooking and stirring until the spinach wilts, for a couple of minutes.
- To the skillet with sautéed vegetables, add 1 cup of heavy cream, paprika, red pepper flakes. Bring to simmer. Simmer for about 1 minute, stirring. Season with salt. Add more paprika, if you like.
Pasta
- Cook penne according to package instructions. Drain.
Assembly
- Add cooked and drained pasta to the skillet with the cream sauce. Stir in.
- Remove skin from the salmon by sliding the fork between the salmon fillet and the skin.
- Slice salmon into large chunks.
- Add salmon chunks to the creamy pasta. Stir to combine. Simmer for a minute or more, until the salmon is warmed up and cooked through. The salmon should be flaky.
- Season with salt, if needed.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Hi may I know how many grams is 8 oz of pasta?
8 Oz = 226.8 g
Was just having a read at this and mouth was watering! Went and bought the ingredients and can’t wait to try it. Thanks Julia, love from Scotland
Lovely recipe. Goes great with your pesto tomato cucumber salad
Glad you liked it! 🙂
This recipe was very easy to execute but I think I unfortunately got a rather flavorless jar of sundried tomatoes so I ended up having a spicy cream-sauce with no redeeming flavors. At the last minute I added fresh lime juice and a little extra salt - the extra acid seemed to totally transform the dish. My family said it was one of the most tasty pasta dishes ever! I'd look forward to trying to again with maybe more flavorful sundried tomatoes (mine came in a glass jar of oil from Whole Foods). Thank you for the great recipe!
Great Recipe! Dish was so delicious my family asked for the recipe also.
Loved it!
Blooming lovely, such a tasty resturant quality dish.
Can this be frozen?
Really good. Used egg noodles & asparagus. Next time will use more sun-dried tomatoes, paprika, and red pepper flakes. May add some chili garlic paste to notch up the heat. Otherwise, it's bland. Also, make sure you use enough cream to make it saucy. Was fast & easy to put together.
So quick to make for a restaurant quality dish. Perfect. Loved it didn't have pepper flakes so used chilli flakes. It’s absolutely gorgeous.
Absolutely delicious!!! We loved it so much we are having it again tonight after having it last night. OMG. Beautiful. I would add more spinach and a bit more sun dried tomatoes I wish it wasn't quoted in cups, I never really know how much to give.
This is a great recipe but we made a couple of changes: (1) rather than heavy cream, we made a bechamel with 1 1/4c milk and 1 1/2T flour and some butter to which we added the paprika to get it all well blended and a dash of nutmeg; (2) we used 1/4 - 3/8 lb pasta and 1/4 - 1/2 lb fish; and (3) when assembling we had the pasta, bechamel, salmon and spinach/tomatoes ready to go. We first added the fish to the spinach/tomato in the skillet and heated gently (this way one can start with cold, left over fish). We added the pasta and bechamel together and stirred everything to mix well over medium heat just long enough for the dish to be the eating temp we wanted. We served in warm pasta bowls. We felt a little salt, pepper and additional red pepper flakes were the only taste adjustments needed. We didn't think anything like Parmesan was needed although having lived in Italy we would normally add some cheese to a pasta with salmon.
Could you use nonfat half and half in place of the heavy cream?
The sauce does need the fat content to be creamy. You could use heavy creamy or regular half-and-half + small amount of shredded Parmesan cheese.
I used light cream because I am supposed to be dieting. Still delicious.
Hi,
This was so good! My boyfriend and I loved it, and the portions are incredibly generous. Will add more spinach next time. 🙂
So glad you liked it! I also like to add extra spinach to pasta! 🙂
This ;looks great! I am going to try it on a group of savvy women for a working retreat...I know they will love it!
Enjoy!