Smoked Salmon, Red Onion, Fennel & Caper Gluten-Free Pasta

May 22, 2019

By Anna Varriano

This dish is easy, delicious, and can be prepared in 20 minutes. If you like the classic combo of salmon, onions, and capers, you’ll love this dish! I first made this dish to use up way too much leftover smoked salmon, sliced onions, and capers from a platter I had prepared for a big party I had hosted the night before! Since then, I don’t wait to have leftover smoked salmon to make it! You can also use fresh salmon, or left over baked/grilled salmon. This recipe makes 2 to 3 servings.

To have this dish come together in 20 minutes, check the cook time on the pasta you are going to use and plan the rest accordingly. The pasta I used took about 8 minutes to to cook, so I got it into boiling water as soon as I started the sauteing part of ‘Step 1’ below!

You Will Need

2 cups of uncooked/dry pasta. I used GoGo Quinoa Cauliflower Fusilli that I bought at Costco. Note that organic brown rice flour and organic quinoa flour are the first two ingredients of this pasta.
120 grams of smoked salmon pulled/cut into bite-size(ish) pieces
1/2 cup of diced or thinly sliced red onion
1/2 cup diced or thinly sliced fennel bulb (if you don’t have or don’t like fennel, this dish is still yummy without it.
2 to 3 TBSP of capers (suit your taste)
2 TBSP of olive oil (or 1 TBSP each olive oil and butter – suit your taste)
fresh parsley, or dill, or fennel fronds as optional garnish

Step 1: Prepping

Get pasta water boiling in a large pot
Get all other ingredients together
Once you have chopped/diced/prepped onions, fennel, and salmon, add pasta to boiling water and set a timer for desired pasta cooking time. Meanwhile ….
In a skillet, heat oil/butter over medium heat
Add onions, fennel, and capers
Sautee for 5 to 7 minutes, or until onions and fennel become translucent/softened

Step 3: Add Salmon

Add salmon to skillet and toss with other ingredients
If you are using smoked salmon, you barely need a minute to have it warmed/cooked through. If you are using raw salmon, cook it to your desired level of done-ness. Take skillet off heat when salmon is done. If you timed things properly, your pasta should be cooked! If it’s not, no biggie – you can warm everything up again in the next step.

Step 4: Putting It All Together

Drain and rinse pasta.
Toss into skillet with salmon, onions, fennel, and capers until well mixed. Return to heat if necessary to warm everything up!
To serve, spoon into pasta bowls, drizzle with olive oil and garnish with fresh parsley, and/or fennel fronds (they look and taste similar to dill!), and/or whatever you’d like to suit your taste!