Smoked salmon fettuccine is an easy pasta recipe made creamy and light by the addition of ricotta cheese in perfect Italian style!
This recipe needs only a few ingredients and no special skills.
Fettuccine with smoked salmon and ricotta cheese is a simple dish but elegant and refined at the same time. It’s perfect for special occasions such as Christmas lunch or New Year’s Eve dinner!
This version of creamy smoked salmon pasta is made WITHOUT CREAM. The creaminess comes from fresh ricotta cheese, which makes the dish lighter but equally creamy. Season it with lemon zest and parsley. It’s an authentic delight!
In this recipe you’ll find out all the tricks and secrets for making the best smoked salmon pasta. Creamy and flavorful to perfection.
As for the pasta, we chose bronze-drawn durum wheat fettuccine, that are firm and thick in our opinion. But you can also use fresh egg pasta for this dish. Or try our recipe for pasta with smoked salmon with short pasta shapes: farfalle, mezze maniche and penne rigate are undoubtedly the best ones!
Tasty and very quick to make, creamy smoked salmon fettuccini is a recipe to always keep in mind when you have little time but a great desire to bring a stylish, delicious dish to the table!
See Also:
- Shrimp with zucchini pasta and cherry tomatoes
- Smoked Salmon Carbonara
- Spaghetti allo Scoglio | Italian Seafood Pasta Recipe
- Shrimp and Zucchini Risotto
- Savory Cannoli
- Creamy Pumpkin Tagliatelle with Sausage and Mushrooms
How to Make Creamy Smoked Salmon Fettuccine: ingredients
- Prep Time: 10 Min
- Cook Time:15 Min
- Servings: 4
- 350 g (12 oz) of fettuccine. We used bronze-drawn durum wheat fettuccine by Tuscanini or you can make them at home with our fettuccine recipe
- 200 g (7 0z) of fresh ricotta cheese
- 150 g (5 oz) of smoked salmon
- 1 shallot
- 1 organic lemon
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 120 ml (1/2 cup) of dry white wine
- 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
- Salt and pepper to taste
Kitchen Tools and Equipment
You don’t need any particular kitchen tool to make Italian Smoked Salmon fettuccine since the recipe is so simple.
But it could definitely be helpful to have a good grater for the lemon peel, an electric chopper for the parsley and a cutting board to chop the shallot and the salmon.
A pot with a colander for cooking and drain pasta can also be useful. This type of pot allows you to drain the pasta while keeping the cooking water for the recipe. Or you can simply use a simple spaghetti spoon to transfer the fettuccine from the water to the sauce pan.
It’s also very beautiful and decorative to use these Italian Hand Painted Dishes to serve smoked salmon and ricotta fettuccine during the Holidays. Your table will look amazing and elegant with these terrific hand-painted Italian ceramics!
Instructions
Step 1) – Start by bringing a pot of lightly salted water to a boil for the pasta. About 2.5 liters (10 cups) of water with 1 tablespoon of coarse salt.
Then finely chop the shallot and cut the smoked salmon into small pieces.
Step 2) – Sauté the shallots in a skillet with 2 tablespoons of oil. Then add the smoked salmon. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes over medium heat.
Keep a few pieces of raw salmon aside. You will use them to serve as a garnish for the dish.
Step 3) – Add the dry white wine and let it evaporate over high heat. Cook for another 2 minutes over medium heat, then turn off the heat and keep aside.
Now, when the water boils, add the coarse salt. Then drop in the fettuccine and cook. Follow the cooking time indicated on the package. This ranges from 6 to 10 minutes depending on the thickness of the pasta.
Step 4) – Separately, put the ricotta cheese, chopped parsley, a scant ladle of pasta cooking water, a pinch of salt and pepper, and grated lemon zest in a bowl.
PLEASE NOTE: If the lemon is very large, half is enough. Make sure it is organic and be careful to scrape only the superficial yellow part. The white part underneath is very bitter.
Step 5) – Stir vigorously until it forms a smooth, homogeneous cream.
If the cream seems too firm and compact, add some of the pasta cooking water. This depends on the amount of liquid in the ricotta. Keep aside.
Now when the pasta is cooked, drain it al dente.
READ: How to Cook Fresh Pasta
Step 6) – Turn the heat back on under the pan with the salmon. Then put the fettuccine directly into the salmon and stir.
Finally add the ricotta cream.
Step 7) – Stir everything together, turn off the heat, and serve. Decorate with a few pieces of raw smoked salmon and a few parsley leaves.
Enjoy these Italian creamy smoked salmon fettuccine!
Can I Store Smoked Salmon Fettuccine in the Fridge?
No, we don’t recommend storing them in the refrigerator or freezer. Smoked salmon fettuccine should be eaten as soon as ready.
Characteristic of this recipe is the need to drain the pasta al dente and serve it immediately as soon as it’s seasoned, while it’s still hot.
This is a classic recipe that we call “espressa”, that is “made and eaten”.
The risk is that as it cools, the dish loses creaminess and softness. This is why we do not recommend storing or freezing it.
What is the Best Pasta to Serve with the Smoked Salmon and Ricotta Sauce?
We used bronze-drawn durum wheat fettuccine. This type of pasta holds its cooking well and even if you take a little time to serve it, it will not be ruined.
Certainly egg pasta is good as well for this dish. You can try your hand at making fresh egg pasta. It will be super easy to make perfect homemade fettuccine by following our step-by-step recipe!
But be careful that fresh pasta has a faster cooking time so don’t overcook it. The risk is that it clumps too much with the sauce.
If you prefer instead of fettuccine you can use short pasta shapes: farfalle, mezze maniche and penne rigate are undoubtedly the most popular.
Creamy Fettuccine with Smoked Salmon and Ricotta: Some Variants
Smoked Salmon Pasta (with Cream)
We have shown you a version of Fettuccine with smoked salmon and fresh Italian ricotta to have a lighter, more digestible and less caloric dish. But the most famous and popular combination for this recipe, which is certainly very tasty, is smoked salmon and cream.
Instead of preparing a separate cream, pour 250 ml (8 oz) of whipping cream into the pan with the salmon. Let it cook about 5 minutes to let the cream shrink a bit, and then season the pasta.
Smoked Salmon Pasta with Zucchini
To enrich the taste of your pasta dish, you can add vegetables. The most suitable vegetables to pair with smoked salmon are those with a sweet and delicate flavor.
Definitely zucchini goes perfectly with the delicate flavor of salmon.
Here are our tips for the smoked salmon and zucchini pasta recipe. First, wash the zucchini, dice them and saute them in a pan along with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
While the pasta is cooking, stir in the salmon, deglaze with half a cup of white wine and let it evaporate over high heat. Make the ricotta cream as shown in the recipe. Finally season the pasta with this delicious sauce.
You can also enrich pasta with smoked salmon and ricotta by adding peas or asparagus tips.
Pasta with Smoked Salmon and Vodka
Another tasty and quick variation is pasta with smoked salmon and vodka.
This was one of the typical condiments of Italian cuisine in the 1970s, but certainly still very popular.
The famous recipe for “Penne alla Vodka” calls for Pennette and pancetta, but these can easily be substituted with Fettuccine and smoked salmon for a sea-flavored Vodka version.
The method follows the same steps as our recipe. The only difference is the use of 1/2 cup of vodka instead of white wine to blend the salmon and shallots.
Pasta with fresh Salmon
If you do not like the smoky flavor, you can certainly use fresh salmon.
Carefully clean the salmon slice by removing the skin and any bones. At this point you can cut it into chunks or coarsely fray it before cooking.
Sauté the shallot and then cook the fish over low heat while you boil the pasta; it only takes a few minutes. Then proceed as directed.
This pasta recipe with Fresh Salmon and Ricotta will definitely have a milder flavor. We recommend adding a little ground black pepper or a few whole pink peppercorns when serving.