Pasta with creamy asparagus and smoked salmon

This pasta with creamy asparagus and smoked salmon is one of my favourite summer dishes for when you're hungry but want something a little refreshing. It's certainly filling, but it is also light with the flavours of warm weather; citrus and green things. Better still, it takes very little effort to cook.

The touring salmon of Italy

This pasta with creamy asparagus and smoked salmon is one of the first smoked salmon dishes I can remember eating in Italy. Apart from fancy Roman and Milanese households that had a penchant for serving smoked salmon (salmone affumicato) as an antipasti, I don't recall encountering smoked salmon that much in Italy.

According to some (questionable millennial) sources, the ancient Romans enjoyed smoked salmon. And certainly, Venice has a long history of producing smoked salmon, though the species used there, the Adriatic Salmon, is decidedly closer to trout than what Scots or Canadians might consider salmon-worthy.

There's no grandiose tale behind this one. It's a dish I've been cooking since I was a kid and it's always been one of those go-to, low-effort summer dishes to knock up when you don't want to cook for hours. That doesn't make it any less satisfying or tasty. Oddly enough, some people for whom I have cooked it have been far more impressed by this, what I find to be a pretty simple dish, than meals that took considerably more effort.

However, something I do remember was a fascinating conversation with a retired chef in Milan some years ago over a coffee at Bar Brera. For many years she had worked in the kitchens of the famous Hotel Touring, now a five-star Radisson hotel. And, her father had been a chef there before her. Originally opened in 1915 as the the new local HQ of the Touring Club Italiano, it was one of the examples of the "touring" craze that swept Europe in the early 20th century.

In the midst of the conversation, I asked her about smoked salmon in Italian cooking, having just dragged a big bloody chunk of it from Scotland to Milan for an expatriate who begged me to bring a "wee taste of hame"... though he actually meant a big one.

She smiled and retuned to her tale. The well-heeled who could afford motor vehicles at the time got the "touring bug", taking road trips wherever roads could take them. And, smart entrepreneurs set up Touring Clubs with high membership fees offering lavish accommodation and hospitality in the big stop-offs on the most popular routes around Europe. These were, after all, people who expected and could afford luxury at the end of a day hurtling at a gasp-worthy speed of 20mph through alpine passes in motor cars with primitive suspension...

Federica (for that was her name) told me that her father told her that the Italian fashion for smoked salmon had really kicked off in the late-1920s and early-1930s when the demand for it by galivanting British aristos with a love of motoring stopping off at Touring Club destinations in Italy renewed its fashionable status. Yes, according to her, it had been around before then, but it was a bit more of a niche thing or associated with places like Venice that produced it.

However, ever since the 1930s, she told me, you could find it on Italian menus in certain kinds of places, such a these places that had started out as private clubs, or in hotels on the Italian lakes popular with the British elite back in the day. Sometimes (such as in my beloved recipe) it would have an Italian jaunty angle to its hat, but sometimes it would be available with a distinctly British vibe, such as smoked salmon and cucumber sandwiches served by the hostelries that adopted the "high tea" tradition on the lakes.

She told me that her father had passed on to her that during WWII, when technically everything British was frowned up under Mussolini, nonetheless, there remained establishments that still offered high tea. Quite a few of the Northern Italians from the privileged classes who'd thrown their lot in with il Duce had married English posh birds who still expected the familiarity of home.

This has nothing however to do with my recipe... I hope. After all, I learned it as a kid from my dad and all I know is that he came across it in Trieste.

Chillax for the pasta max

There're not many tricks to this one. I almost always cook it with pappardelle. This is as much habit and memories of my father as anything else. It works well with any thicker "ribbon" pasta such as tagliatelle or even thicker linguine; basically anything that takes well to being coated in a fairly thick sauce.

The thing that is slightly different about how is it is cooked is how the onions are handled. In so many Italian sauces, the onions are initially sautéed in the true sense of the word; in an open pan. Here, it's probably more accurate to say that they are partly-sautéed-partly-simmered. Don't worry: there's no fancy-schmancy technique to learn. All you need to clock is that they are partly cooked with the lid on (in comparatively a lot of wine) so that the liquid doesn't cook off too quickly. One thing I understood about this sauce as I understood cooking better is that it is largely about avoiding caramelisation rather than encouraging it.

And that makes total sense when you taste the final dish. It's about tartness, about freshness and yet also creamy. The way in which it lacks depth (at least in terms of flavours) is what gives it an entirely summer complexity rather than one based on "richness".

If I have one area of caution, don't overdo the fresh dill. The "small clutch" referred to in the ingredients means to me 5 or 6 stems cut off at about 10cm from the top of the plant. More than that, and it starts to become too dominant in the overall flavour mix.

For the pepperoncino I'm using in the salad here, I'm using the dried peppers I have ground in my spice grinder. But it is entirely optional. I like a bit spice for contrast. You don't have to...

This version is for 2 to 3 diners, but you can do the math if you want to cater for a larger group. It scales in a a fairly prosaic way; no hidden tricks etc.

3 top tips to get this recipe right:

• Unlike many other recipes where I might bluster on about you needing to use "proper, thick Scottish smoked salmon", this is one where you need to use very thinly filleted smoked salmon; the type you find in garden party sandwiches. There are reasons for this that become clear later

• In many Italian pasta recipes you'll see I talk about keeping back a bit of the water in which the pasta is cooked for the finishing stages of adding the pasta to the sauce. In this recipe it is absolutely vital. So, make sure you keep back about half a cup of it when draining the pasta. Otherwise, the sauce in your final dish will end up too thick and not coat the pasta properly

• Because the sauce in this dish necessarily uses more dry white wine than in many other sauces, it already gains a certain tartness. This is amplified by the lemon. It's one of the things I love about it. But, if you like less tartness, leave out the lemon. Don't reduce the wine. It has two functions here: firstly, softening the onions in a very particular way; and, secondly, acting as a kind of "preventative" that stops the lemon from curdling the cream when it is added.

Shopping list

for the pasta with creamy asparagus and smoked salmon

• Approx. 80 to 90g (dried) papperdelle per diner; or equivalent in other "ribbon" pasta

• Approx. 170g thin green asparagus (sprue); cut into large pieces and steamed

• 2 large brown onions (or red); diced

• 4 cloves of smoked garlic, (normal is fine); finely chopped (not grated or crushed)

• 120g thinly sliced smoked salmon

• 4 tbspns virgin olive oil

• The juice and pulp of 1 fresh lemon

• 450ml dry white wine

• 200ml single cream

• 2 fresh bay leaves

• salt and pepper to taste

for the salad

• fresh pea shoots

• sliced cucumber

• finely ground dried pepperoncino flakes

• A little extra virgin olive oil

• A little balsamic vinegar

  
  

Cooking Method

the pasta with creamy asparagus and smoked salmon

1. In a reasonably deep frying pan with a lid, heat the olive oil on a medium heat. Add the onions and sauté, stirring regularly. When the onions show signs of softening, add the smoked garlic and stir in. Before it has time to burn, pour in about 100ml of the wine. Add the bay leaves. Cover and simmer for approx. 5mins, keeping an eye on the liquid so it does not cook off too quickly

2. When most of the wine had cooked off, reduce to a low heat and pour in 150ml. Recover and repeat. However, this time, when the wine had nearly cooked off, add the juice and pulp of the lemon. Allow this to cook down until nearly, but not quite dry

3. Add the remainder of the wine, re-cover and simmer on a low heat. In this recipe, the covering of the pan is important because it will prevent the liquid from cooking off until the onions are truly softened. NB: if the onions are not yet soft enough when all the wine has cooked off, add small amounts of water and repeat this covered simmering until the onions are fully soft and take on a honey colour

4. While simmering the onions, place half of the steamed asparagus and the dill in a mini chopper and chop. Then pour in the cream. Chop until you produce a smooth mixture in which the dill and asparagus are finely chopped and mixed in

5. When the onions are fully softened, add the other half of ("whole") steamed asparagus to the pan and stir in, increasing to a medium heat; until the "chunks" of asparagus are heated through

6. Add the asparagus, dill and cream mix and gently stir in, reducing the heat as necessary to ensure the cream does not boil. Stir almost constantly, adding salt as needed as you gently allow the cream to thicken and cook on a low heat

7. As soon as the cream has fully thickened and melded with the other ingredients, cover and remove from the heat

8. Cook your pappardelle in salted water that you have brought to the boil. While your pasta is cooking, slice your salmon and season it generously with freshly ground black pepper on the chopping board

9. When your pasta is cooked al dente, drain, ensuring you keep about 1 cup of the "pasta water" to one side

10. Return the sauce to a medium heat, adding a few spoons of the "pasta water", stirring it in as the heat rises. Add the drained pasta to the pan, folding in so that all surfaces become coated with the sauce. Add additional "pasta water", a couple of spoons at a time as needed to assist with lubricating the sauce so it fully coats all the pasta

11. When the pasta is optimally coated, the sauce at the right consistency and all ingredients at an optimal temperature, add the seasoned salmon to the pan and quickly stir in. Almost immediately, remove from the heat, cover, and allow to rest. Remember, smoked salmon is already "cooked" and you don't want to cook it any more, merely to heat through with the heat of the dish

12. Plate and take to table with the salad or bread

    

    

    

Alternatives

This is by default a pescatarian dish. If you prefer, you can do it with flaked, cooked (i.e. not smoked) salmon, and that certainly works. However, my personal second-favourite version is with smoked haddock that has been briefly steamed, flaked and then treated pretty much like the smoked salmon here.

Simply by not adding the smoked salmon, this remains a great lactovegetarian dish which I cook often, adding garden peas or broad beans, both of which work well with the dill. Generally fish-based Italian pastas don't used hard cheeses. But a bit of grated parmigiana of other hard cheese really works with the veggie version.

Fankly I'm more likely to have these veggie ingredients in my freezer than decent smoked salmon in my fridge.

However, I have been very open about my lack of (good) experience of cooking with plant-based cream alternatives, so I don't really have anything to offer in the vegan direction. It's certainly not a dish I would do for dining parties with mixed dietary requirements.

As far as carnivore versions go, I was brought up with the versions with pancetta or bacon being practically interchangeable with the smoked salmon version. In their case, you first cook the cubed pancetta or bacon in the pan in a little olive oil. You then place to one side using a sieve spoon, leaving all the juices in the pan before adding more oil and sautéing the onions, to which you additionally add a little oregano.

You replace the dill with parsley. Other than that, it's pretty much the same process, returning the cooked pancetta or bacon to the sauce at the point of the smoked salmon. And, yes, you still use the lemon.

Pairings

Yeah, I should probably be heading in the direction of Italian wines on this one. And, indeed, that was my default setting for a long time, sometimes heading in the direction of those bold Sicilian Catarrattos or the opposite direction those most "understated" Friuli wines most overrated by Romans....

But then a colleague told me not that long ago—and this is a mature gentleman who knows his stuff—that Italy was the EU country that exported the least of its wine... because everybody drank it all at home. And suddenly the world made sense; all those wines I've loved there but can never find here, certainly not least after Brexit.

So I headed in a completely other direction, the direction of my beloved South African wines and the one that has worked most beautifully is Boekenhoutskloof Porcupine Ridge Rosé.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I get that there are higher scoring SAFA rosés and whites out there. But, I I think this one works perfectly with this dish that needs the dryness but also needs a pretty strong internal sense of balance to walk the tightrope of very green and oddly tart flavours. The good news (for us and them) is that it won't break the bank. Yes, I did bugger about with other much pricier rosés and, no, sorry, didn't feel the love in the room. I felt it here.

I'm not gonna name and shame, but I'm not really gonna worry about the opinions of oenologists from (to quote my cousin) "Cap Taahn". They haven't yet cooked this dish and paired the right wine with it yet, now have they? Daddy gets to decide....