Recipe for Scottish smoked salmon with fresh pasta
The two main ingredients in this recipe - salmon and pasta - represent two different nations, Scotland and Italy. I am Scottish and my husband is Italian, so if we cannot choose between eating Scottish or Italian cuisine, then this recipe is the perfect compromise!
We live on a farm near Blairgowrie in the heart of Perthshire (Central Scotland), and are privileged to have fresh, local ingredients at our fingertips. The river Tay is full of salmon, and should you ever wish to holiday in our area you can buy a permit locally and fish for your own salmon or trout. We rent out a self-catering holiday cottage for two, further details of which can be found by clicking this link: Hillview Self-Catering Holiday Cottage.
If you are not into fishing for salmon, but you are into eating it, then we can recommend a good place to buy it. Dunkeld Smoked Salmon is a small shop hidden up a side street in the village of Dunkeld, Perthshire. It would be easy to miss the signs for it, but as with most places with not so fancy a shop front, the quality is what really attracts people and keeps them coming back again and again.
So, that's the salmon sorted, now what about the fresh pasta? Well, it is now readily available at your local supermarket, but you could have some fun and try making it yourself!
Recipe for fresh egg pasta:
300g '00' Italian flour
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
I use Shipton Mill Italian '00' Flour, but you can normally find this type in larger supermarkets. If you are staying in our holiday cottage, then I would recommend that you buy your a box of super fresh organic eggs from the Cornsheaf Health Food Store, Blairgowrie. They are not only cheaper than the supermarket ones, but also much tastier.
Method: Sift flour into a big bowl, make a well in the centre and pour whisked egg mixture in. With a fork, slowly add more and more flour to the egg. Once you feel that you've reached "saturation point" it's time to get your hands dirty. Squish the mixture between your fingers until it is smooth - it's a great stress reliever! If the mix seems too wet, add more flour. If too dry, add a little of the egg white that you will have left over. Once it is a nice solid ball and no longer sticky, wrap it in cling film and leave it at room temperature for around half an hour. This allows the dough to toughen up a bit and you will find that it stretches better without breaking.
You do not actually need a pasta machine to make tagliatelle, but it certainly makes the process easier. I love my Imperia pasta machine (a true Italian would never buy anything less), but a similar result can be obtained with a big rolling pin.
The trick to really good pasta is..layers. It takes a little longer, but it gives your a lovely texture. Put a strip of dough about 0.5 cm thick through the machine on its widest setting, this should thin it out to about half, fold lengthwise and put strip through again on the same setting. Repeat if it does not look silky smooth. Similarly, with a rolling pin reduce thickness by half, fold, then reduce again. Make the strip progressively thinner (on the machine I skip from setting 6, to 4, then to 2). I quite like a thicker pasta so often don't use the finest setting - I discovered that my husband's granny does this too. Once it is this much thinner, and much much longer than the original strip (at this point it is wise to cut it into small strips and hang them on the back of a chair or clothes drying rack). If you have the Imperia machine, you should also have the tagliatelle attachment, so just pass the strips through it - et voilà, or perhaps I should say, ed eccoci qua!! If you don't have a machine, you need to make sure that the strips are well-floured, fold them lengthwise and cut as evenly as you can with a large kitchen knife.
Now, hang the strips over a chair or rack and get on with making the sauce...
Recipe for salmon sauce:
Ingredients (serves 3/4)
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
200g Scottish smoked salmon,
half a glass of white wine
a small tub of cream
a handful of parsley
salt to taste (and a little grated nutmeg)
1) Warm oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat.
2) Finely chop the garlic (I find that finely grating it does the job just as well) and add to the pan, if it sizzles too much lower the heat. There is nothing my husband hates more than the taste of burnt garlic!
3) After a few minutes add the salmon chopped into smallish chunks.
4) Stir well, then add the white wine.
5) When the wine has reduced, add the cream and some of the parsley.
6) Cook over a low heat for a little longer, taste and add salt (and nutmeg, if you like it)
It's now time to cook the pasta. The water should be boiling and bubbling. Use your biggest pot - I use almost two kettles of water and two teaspoons of salt. Add salt after the water is boiling, otherwise it takes longer to reach boiling point (or so I've been told in Italy). If you are using fresh pasta it will cook within a few minutes. Dried pasta takes a little longer, but try it a few minutes before it says on the package. If you have a timer, use it. Dip your fork in every so often to see if it looks cooked, and taste a bit. It should be al dente, that is, it should feel a little hard between your teeth. If it doesn't have this, Italians will call it "chewing gum".
Buon appetito!!
