When friends gave me some leftover cooked salmon to take home after a picnic get-together, I couldn’t wait to see what I could come up with to serve the following evening. I could have made Salmon Cakes or Salmon, Bacon, and Corn Chowder, both on this site, and mighty delicious I might add, but I decided to go on line for inspiration. (Plus I was really in the mood for pasta!)

There were an amazing amount of pasta with salmon recipes on the internet. So I took a suggestion or two from other recipes, then settled on this modified version of a recipe on The Cooking Jar site. Farah’s original recipe somehow resonated with me immediately. The first thing that caught my eye was the short number of ingredients. Good grief! I hadn’t made anything for dinner as simple and quick to prepare as this dish appeared to be in a very long time. Plus, I had all the ingredients on hand. Always a plus. And no cream, tons of butter, or other ingredients that would have laid their typical guilt trip on me. (OK, I felt slightly remorseful about the pasta part, but not enough to make me change my mind.) So the changes I made were simply amounts, the addition of peas, and the assembly of the dish.

And the result? Really, really tasty. I didn’t miss a creamy sauce in the least. Neither did Mr. C. We both just loved the heck out of it.

And yesterday for lunch, we enjoyed the dish right out of the refrigerator. It made a killer pasta salad. Still lots of flavor without the fuss of gently warming it in the microwave. Of course you can warm your leftovers (if there are any), but that’s strictly a personal decision.

So if you ever find yourself with leftover salmon, let me recommend this recipe. It’s truly delightful.

• 2 T. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• zest of one good sized lemon
• 2-3 T. fresh lemon juice
• ¼ tsp. kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 T. drained capers
• 1/3-½ c. chopped fresh basil
• 8 oz. hollow pasta such as cavatappi, rigatoni, or penne – cooked al dente and drained
• ½ c. room temperature frozen petite peas (don’t cook the peas, just bring them to room temp.)
• ½ lb. cooked* salmon, cut or flaked into bite sized pieces and gently warmed
• ½ c. finely grated Parmesan cheese

Whisk the olive oil, garlic, lemon zest and juice together in a serving bowl. Add the salt, pepper, capers, and basil. Toss in the freshly cooked and drained pasta, room temperature, un-cooked peas, and warmed leftover salmon pieces. Adjust seasoning. Serve warm, room temperature, or cold. Your choice. Pass the Parmesan at table. 

*If you don’t happen to have any leftover salmon, you can always bake some prior to making this dish. The following recipe for Oven-Roasted Salmon would work perfectly.

OVEN ROASTED SALMON (from American Test Kitchen)

• ½ lb. thickest possible salmon fillet, skin on one side
• 1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
• freshly ground sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Cut off any whitish, fatty portion along the edges of the salmon. Pull out any bones. (I use a pair of tweezers for this purpose.) Cut the salmon fillet into two pieces of equal size.

Make four or five shallow slashes along the skin side of each piece of fish, being careful not to cut into the flesh.

Adjust oven rack to lowest position, place a small rimmed baking sheet on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees.

Pat salmon dry with paper towels. Rub the top of each fillet evenly with olive oil and season liberally with salt and pepper. Reduce oven temperature to 275 degrees and remove baking sheet. Carefully and quickly place salmon skin-side down on the baking sheet. Place in oven and roast until centers of thickest part of fillets register 125 degrees when inserted with an instant-read thermometer, about 9 to 13 minutes. (Check after 7 minutes if the salmon pieces are thin.)