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TL;DR (Quick-Answer Box)
- What it is: A quick, Italian-inspired pasta dish featuring pasta tossed in a silky tomato cream sauce with fresh salmon fillets, garlic, and fragrant basil.
- Why you’ll love it: It is an elegant, weeknight-friendly meal ready in 20 minutes. The rich cream balances the bright acidity of fresh tomatoes and savory salmon.
- How to make it: Boil the pasta. Sauté garlic, red pepper flakes, and tomatoes until the liquid evaporates. Add the salmon, cream, and basil to the skillet and cook until the sauce thickens. Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce. Serve.
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This Creamy Salmon Pasta recipe has been in rotation in our kitchen for years. And for good reason. Although salmon isn’t native to Italy, and is rarely seen on restaurant menus, its rich flavor makes for a deeply flavored and incredibly satisfying pasta sauce. This is one of those recipes where you want everything ready to go the minute the pasta hits the water. Because it’s that quick.
Featured Review
This dish was a hit with the whole family. There was a nice balance of flavors between the sweetness of the salmon, tomato, and creamy sauce. The sauce coated the pasta beautifully, I used farfalle, but I think if you were to use a penne, or another hollow pasta, you might want a smidge more sauce.
Susan Jacobsen
How do I remove the skin from fresh salmon?
If you can, have your fishmonger do this for you. But if you get home and realize you forgot—don’t panic! Removing the skin from fillets is straightforward. You just need a sharp knife and a bit of traction.
- Prep your space. Place the salmon fillet skin-side down on a flat cutting board.
- Get a grip. This is the secret: Use a paper towel to grasp the very tip of the tail or a corner of the skin. It provides the friction you need so the fish doesn’t slide around.
- Make the initial cut. Use a sharp chef’s knife or a flexible fillet knife to make a small cut between the flesh and the skin at the corner you are holding.
- Saw and pull” technique. Angle your knife blade so it is almost flat against the skin. Using long, gentle sawing motions, slide the blade along the length of the fillet.
- Let the skin do the work. Pull the skin firmly in the opposite direction with your paper-towel hand. The meat should lift away in one clean, skinless piece. Bada bing!
More quick + easy seafood pasta recipes
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Write a review
If you make this Creamy Salmon Pasta recipe, or any dish on LC, consider leaving a review, a star rating, and your best photo in the comments below. I love hearing from you.–David
Featured Review
For years, we’ve been dreaming about the Pasta alla Salmone from our (now-closed) favorite restaurant. This beautiful recipe comes as close as we could have ever hoped. We added a little tomato paste, as the Roma tomatoes we used were a bit flavorless. If you don’t have fresh basil leaves, a squeeze of basil concentrate (in a tube in the produce section) will do nicely. Next time, we may add some petite frozen peas.
Tips: Save a few tablespoons of pasta water to add to your sauce toward the end. Be careful not to add the salmon too early, or it will overcook. Season the tomatoes with plenty of salt. Don’t skimp on the crushed red pepper.
Ellen Wagner
Creamy Salmon Pasta with Tomato and Basil
Ingredients
- 6 quarts water
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
- 1 3/4 pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped
- salt
- 1 pound farfalle, penne, or fusilli
- 1/2 pound salmon fillet, skinned* (see Note below)
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 6 to 8 basil leaves
Instructions
- Fill a large pot with 6 quarts water and bring to a boil.
- Pour the 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil in a 12-inch skillet, add the 1 medium clove garlic and 1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes , and place over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring, until the garlic is sizzling.
- Add the 1 3/4 pounds fresh tomatoes, season with salt, and cook until the tomatoes release their liquid and it evaporates, 10 to 12 minutes.
- While the tomatoes are cooking, cut the salmon into strips about 1/4 inch thick and 1 1/2 inches long.
- When the tomato liquid has evaporated, add about 2 tablespoons salt to the boiling pasta water and then add the 1 pound farfalle, penne, or fusilli. Stir well and cook until al dente.
- While the pasta is cooking, add the 1/2 pound salmon fillet to the tomatoes, season with salt, and add the 3/4 cup heavy cream.
- Coarsely chop or rip the 6 to 8 basil leaves and add them to the skillet. Cook until the cream has thickened and reduced by about 1/3, 2 to 3 minutes.
- When the pasta is done, drain well, toss it with the salmon sauce, and serve at once.
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Nutrition
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Recipe Testers’ Reviews
Did you know only 68% of the recipes we test make it onto the site? This recipe survived our rigorous blind testing process by multiple home cooks. It earned the Leite’s Culinaria stamp of approval—and the testers’ reviews below prove it.
This Creamy Salmon Pasta is a very straightforward recipe that was easy to prepare and ready in under 30 minutes. Even with the cream, the sauce was light and delicious. Adding the salmon imparted a wonderful flavor and boosted the dish’s nutritional value.
What an amazing salmon pasta dish! Lots of flavor, not too rich, and easy to make. I made this with fresh wild-caught Alaska salmon (the best IMHO) and fresh summer tomatoes. When there are so few ingredients, I think this recipe benefits from using the freshest and the best. Will definitely make this again.
This dish was a hit with the whole family. There was a nice balance of flavors between the sweetness of the salmon, tomato, and creamy sauce. The sauce coated the pasta beautifully, I used farfalle, but I think if you were to use a penne, or another hollow pasta, you might want a smidge more sauce.
Terrific advice, Susan, thank you!
Please tell me: has anyone in the culinary history of the earth EVER cooked farfalle and had a good result? You know what I mean: no teeny knot of gritty hardness right in the middle where all the pasta folds overlap, and no floppy ends over-cooked to starchy blandness? I think farfalle should just…go away.
Maureen, I have cooked farfalle successfully. Let me ask you: What brands do you use?
I lived in Naples Italy for 3 years during my Navy days, and there was dish called “Farfalle al Salmone” on almost every restaurant’s menu as a “primo” course of the meal. It’s made with smoked, not fresh salmon, and has a rosa crème sauce, I use some sun dried tomato pesto and crème to make it. It also has baby peas in it. It was always one of my favorite dishes there, and I’ve done a pretty good job at replicating it.
Jim, that sounds great. if you want to share the recipe here, I think our readers would enjoy that.
I’ll give it a try, guessing on measurements here, but should be close for about 4 servings. Have all the ingredients prepped beforehand, it comes together fast once you start.
Ingredients
8 ounces farfalle pasta
1 shallot, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 ounces hot smoked salmon, minced
1/4 cup vodka
2 Tbl. sun-dried tomato pesto
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup frozen baby peas, thawed
2 tablespoons butter
Some freshly grated parmesan (I know, no cheese in seafood, but hey, I like it!)
1. Cook the farfalle in salted water until about 1 minute short of al dente. Reserve at least a cup of pasta water, then drain the pasta.
2. Saute the shallot in the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until softened.
3. Add the smoked salmon and vodka, and saute until the liquid is almost gone. Add the sun-dried tomato pesto, cook 1-2 minutes until well combined. Add the cream and simmer until the sauce thickens.
4. Turn up the heat to medium-high and add the pasta. Toss with the sauce and gradually add the pasta water until you have a nice thick sauce that really coats the pasta. (You might not need all the water.) Cook until pasta is al dente. Remove from heat, stir in butter, peas, and parmesan. Serve.
Jim, thanks for this. It sounds delicious! I have to try it.