Salmon & Wilted Lettuce Pasta
Crunchy lettuce is great…but so is wilted lettuce! Lettuces with a faint bitterness/pepperiness to them — arugula, watercress, frisée — are especially good complements to savory dishes. Plus, because they wilt so quickly, they’re a snap to toss into a sautée or stir-fry at the last minute. Just the heat coming from the pan and the hot food will be enough to wilt the leaves.
The next time you find yourself with too much lettuce on your hands and not enough ways to use it, wilt it! Especially when the wild salmon are swimming and in their summertime prime. (Salmon season matches lamb season: both run from May until October.)
Salmon & Wilted Lettuce Pasta
Serves 2 and can easily be doubled or tripled as needed.
2 servings of your favorite whole-grain linguine, prepared according to package directions, then drained and tossed with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil*
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 lb. to 3/4 lb. of leftover baked wild salmon OR you can sautée it fresh** (how much salmon you serve depends on how much each person likes it — I love salmon and like to have hearty portions), chunked into bite-size pieces with two forks
2 handfuls mixed lettuce leaves
While the pasta is cooking, sautée the garlic in a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil over medium-low heat. After 2-3 minutes, the garlic should be nicely golden brown (but not burnt!). Add salmon to the pan to warm it through. Remove pan from heat and stir in lettuce, gently lifting the salmon and incorporating it with the lettuce to wilt the leaves.
Toss salmon mixture with drained linguine. Season to taste with sea salt and add more extra-virgin olive oil if you wish.
Enjoy!
* To make this a gluten-free dish, simply use a gluten-free pasta such as brown rice, corn, or quinoa. I find that Tinkyáda brand brown rice works best.
** To sautée your salmon, rinse the filet under cold running water and pat it dry. In a frying pan big enough to hold the salmon, heat a pat of butter over medium heat. When the butter begins to sizzle slightly, slide the salmon onto it skin side UP. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes, then carefully flip the salmon over so that it’s skin side DOWN.
Continue to cook for another 5 minutes, then poke the center of the filet with a fork to see how it’s cooking. If the top and bottom are browning and seeming to dry out but the middle is still very pink, reduce the heat to medium-low. Continue cooking, covered, until the center flesh flakes cleanly with a fork. (This will probably take about 15 minutes depending on the thickness of your fish and the heat of your stove.) Once the fish is done, you can usually slide the flesh right off of the skin with a spatula, leaving the skin behind in the pan.
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Tags: garlic, gluten-free, lettuce, pasta, wild salmon, wilted lettuce
