What’s for dinner?

Hello everyone! Hope your season is going fun and creative! Today I am so~ excited to introduce something I’ve been waiting so long. This is originally my fiancé’s recipe that I adore so much that I hope you have a chance to make one for yourself someday. Are you interested in a quick and simple recipe? (Do I hear lots of “yes!”?) What about summer pasta with little extra? Sounds tempting? I bet you will like this.

 

 

Strangely enough I’ve never been into pasta. Don’t get me wrong. I love, love tomatoes (I eat at least 20-30 of those cherry tomatoes everyday recently.), but tomato sauce? Well, not so much… So as you guess I might not be friendly with pasta or pizza covered with thick tomato sauce on it. I felt sorry to J cause he loves pasta with the sauce. I had to take some break (at least a few months) between meals with the tomato sauce in it. Generally that made me stay far away from pasta until J surprised me with this wonderful kind. Now I am in love with this eating more than J could eat at dinner table. The base of the sauce is light olive oil and little bit of white wine. Doesn’t it sound already refreshing and sophisticated? 
(Sorry, tomato sauce. I will find time to make friends with you soon.)

So here we go. We need a chunk or slices of fresh salmon. I think chunks look better on the pasta (Surely, it gives absolutely hearty look.) but slices are tastier (The texture is more chewy and flavor is more savory in my humble opinion.). Well, it is your call so try here and there and find what you like best. First and very importantly don’t forget to lightly cover the bottom and sides of an oven-safe container with little bit of butter so the fish will come out neatly after you oven it. If you miss this part the fish will stick to the container and you might end up with lots of fish flakes rather than chunks. Put the fish in the container and sprinkle fresh herbs and lemon juice on it. Adding little bit of lemon slices on the top as you see in the photos would give an awesome look for a final touch later. Oven about 10-15 mins at 360F(180C) until they turn to gorgeous light coral.

 

 

Now time to prepare noodle. You can play with many different kinds of noodles. J and me finally settle down with this thin and wide Italian noodle called ‘fettuccine’. We tried a few kinds and so far this works best for us. (Don't be afraid of trying new kinds. You will be nicely surprised with whatever you choose.) Once you choose your kind of pasta boil and rinse it as you usually do.

While fish is getting hot and yummy in the oven and the noodle is dancing in the pot we will prepare the fabulous wine sauce. One of the most important ingredients is minced-garlic. In Korea we eat garlic all the time and this (early summer) is the season of garlic. In the markets we can find lots and lots of fresh chunky garlic cloves. It smells incredibly pungent. I know some of you wouldn’t appreciate this strong fragrance but that’s a beauty of this healthy and lovely herb. Garlic gives rich and savory flavor that no other ingredients can do. The smell of minced garlic in olive oil simply makes me sing.

 

 

Prepare garlic, olives (brown, green, or any kinds), onions (yellow, purple, or any kinds), mushroom (again any kinds you like) all nicely diced and sauté with olive oil. Once onion pieces get soft add some white wine and simmer in light heat until the sauce gets thicker. When you’re happy with the thickness of the sauce simply add the prepared noodle and cook a couple of mins more. By now you will be enjoying the rich and savory aroma and wowing the gorgeous color of the sauce. This is a signal that you’re doing it right! J

 

 

 

Finally time to put all the beauty together and enjoy. Place noodle on the bottom of the plate and add your gorgeous salmon stake on the top. If you’d like sprinkle more herbs. If you need some veggies to go with here is what I would do.

 

 

While J was preparing pasta I stopped by our little garden and took some babygreens for our salad to compliment the pasta. I love the idea that we enjoy veggies freshly picked 5 mins. before we eat. I am pretty sure veggies at markets I buy usually travel at least a few days until I cook. How awesome that we can enjoy this perfectly fresh organic things so easily and simply! Nothing fancy really! 4 assorted green leaves and cheery tomatoes with nuts and dried cranberry topping. Looking pretty good, isn’t it?

 

Voila!! Here’s our awesome dinner! As I like simple and easy, and… extra looking good. We wished we had a glass of wine but realized we poured up all of our wine for the pasta. Well, that’s disappointing but at least the pasta and salad taste simply amazing as we imagined. So we are happy anyway!

Hope this little recipe is inspiring enough that you try sometime soon. It would make wonderful summer dinner. Please try and let me know how it goes. Do you have your own special recipe? Don't be shy and please feel free to share. I'd love to try!

Have a wonderful season and talk to you soon!

xoxoXOXO,

Soyun.