This Creamy Salmon Pasta is the perfect recipe for a date night in, or to make any weeknight special! With garlic and spinach, it turns into such a flavorful dish.
½poundfrozen spinachdefrosted and cooked; OR ½ pound fresh baby spinach
1(12-oz) boxlinguine pastacooked according to package directions; drained
Instructions
Combine ground paprika, garlic powder, salt, pepper and olive oil. Spread over salmon fillets, then cook salmon for 10-15 minutes at 400°F in the oven or in the air fryer; or pan-fry in a little oil in a skillet on the stove.
For the sauce, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 30-60 seconds. Then, add dried parsley and lemon zest and cook for another 30 seconds.
Turn the heat up to medium-high. Add white wine (OR more chicken broth), scraping any browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Simmer for 2 minutes.
Whisk cornstarch into chicken broth. Then, pour chicken broth into skillet with white wine mixture. Stir well, then simmer until thickened to your liking, about 3-4 minutes.
Stir heavy cream into sauce. Simmer on medium heat until heated through. Add more cream (OR chicken broth for lighter sauce) as needed if sauce feels too thick, or if it has reduced too much and there seems too little sauce to coat all of the pasta. Add salt and pepper to taste.
If using fresh spinach, add to the sauce and allow to wilt for a couple of minutes. Then, toss the pasta in the sauce until coated (you can still add more cream or chicken broth at this point). Break up cooked salmon into pieces and carefully add to the dish. If using frozen and cooked spinach, add it now.
Serve the pasta immediately.
Notes
Ingredient notes
Salmon: I prefer using skin-on salmon fillets because they stay juicier and also I find I can break them into neater pieces to add to the pasta. If you only have skinless, it works totally fine. You might want to flake the salmon vs breaking into chunks to add to the pasta.
Spinach: Fresh baby spinach or frozen whole leaf both work. Defrost and fully cook frozen spinach before adding to the pasta. Fresh baby spinach can be added right to the sauce. I do not recommend using frozen chopped spinach.
Pasta: I know I wrote spaghetti on the photo, but I later realized I actually have Linguine in the photos. Oops! Either works. In fact, any long, thin pasta works great. You can also use a short shape like rotini or penne if that’s all you have. Our favorite is Linguine, but they’re all good.
White wine: Feel free to use more chicken broth in place of the wine if you want to stay away from alcohol. If you’re curious about a wine suggestion, I recommend a crisp, dry white wine such as a Pinot Grigio or unoaked Chardonnay.
Heavy cream: If you do not want to use heavy cream, be careful with substitutions. Not all dairy products can withstand the acidity of the wine. Half and half should work fine, so does evaporated milk.
Seasoning: I add a spinach of ground nutmeg to the sauce, we love it! But it’s absolutely not to everyone’s taste, so I’m adding it as an optional ingredient only.
Recipe tips
You can cook the salmon in the oven, in the air fryer or in a skillet. If using skin-on salmon, always place it skin down. It takes on average 10-15 minutes at 400°F no matter how you cook it. The exact timing will depend on your exact size of salmon fillet.
Make sure you use medium heat to sauté the garlic and other aromatics. You don’t want to burn them, or the dish will taste bitter.
It’s important to whisk the cornstarch into the chicken broth until it’s totally combined. Otherwise, you’ll end up with lumpy sauce.
If the sauce doesn’t thicken enough to your liking, feel free to stir some more cornstarch into a little bit of cool water and add that to the simmering sauce. Never sprinkle cornstarch directly into hot liquids, it will clump up immediately.