Poached Salmon and Tomato Sauce with Pasta

I have an unusual piece of salmon.  Perhaps unusual is not a fair description because every salmon has a tail.  It’s just not the customary piece people buy and cook.  I ended up with this lovely shiny tail when I bought a whole frozen salmon from the frozen butcher.  By which I mean he sells mostly frozen products, not that he is made of ice. 

The nice guys in the white rubber aprons cut my whole fish apart into steaks with an exposed electric saw that made me shudder for their fingers.  And then they popped all the pieces in a plastic bag, which I put in my freezer.  Gradually we have eaten all the proper pieces, that is to say, the steaks and now I am left with just the tail.  It seems to have a lot of meat so I decided to poach it, debone it and use the meat and poaching liquid to make a sauce for pasta. 

Here goes.

Ingredients

1 piece of salmon tail – a little more than 1 pound or half a kilo of fish.  Substitutions encouraged.

8 garlic cloves

1 can (425g or 15oz) whole or crushed tomatoes

1/2 cup dry white wine

6 springs of fresh thyme (4 for poaching liquid, 2 to serve)

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Sea salt

Black pepper

Olive oil

250g or 8 oz pasta

Method

Chop the garlic up and the sauté it with a little olive oil in a relatively deep saucepan.

Add in the can of tomatoes and, if they are whole, break them up with the spoon.

Add in the white wine and the 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, season your fish tail with sea salt and several grinds of fresh black pepper.

Let the poaching liquid boil for just a few minutes then turn it down to simmer.

Add the salmon tail and enough water to bring the level up to at least cover half of it.

Add in four of the sprigs of thyme and cover the pan.  Set your timer for 25 minutes. 

Halfway through, turn the salmon over.  

When the timer dings, remove the salmon from the poaching liquid and leave it to cool.

Turn the heat under the poaching liquid back up and let it boil along merrily until reduced by half.

Meanwhile, put your pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta.  Cook your pasta of choice according to package instructions.  Drain and keep warm. 

When the fish is cool enough to handle, peel the skin off with a knife and your fingers.  Remove the meat from the top half of the tail.  Remove the spine bones.

Turn that baby over and remove the skin from the bottom half.

Break the fish up into bite-sized pieces.   Chop the reserved thyme into little pieces.

When the poaching liquid is thickened enough, remove the old pieces of thyme.

Depending on your pot, add the pasta to the sauce or the sauce to the pasta.  Add in the salmon and the fresh thyme.

Gently stir or give it a toss to mix through.

Enjoy!  This will feed at least three, possibly four, hungry people. 

Rigatoni with Homemade Pesto

One of the first things we did when we arrived in Houston was to buy fresh herbs in pots for the back deck:  Rosemary, basil, oregano, flat leaf parsley and thyme. We are fortunate to have Buchanan’s Native Plants in the neighborhood with their great selection of wonderful plants.  All of the herbs are healthy and growing but the basil has really taken off!  Which only means one thing: pesto!

Ingredients

2-3 big branches of overgrown basil

1-2 large cloves of garlic , peeled and coarsely chopped (I only had one but would have put two if it had been available.)

45g or 1.6 ounces of raw pine nuts

100g or 4 ounces of Parmesan

Olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

500g or about 1 pound rigatoni pasta

Special Equipment

Hand blender

Method

Toast the pine nuts in a dry non-stick skillet.

Pick the leaves off of the basil branches and finely grate the Parmesan. 

Put 100ml or 4 ounces olive oil in the hand blender container. Add the toasted pine nuts, half the basil leaves and half the Parmesan.  Blend for a couple of minutes and then add the balance of the basil and the Parmesan and a few good grinds of fresh black pepper. If the pesto is too thick, add more olive oil, starting with another 2 ounces. Blend until the pesto is smooth and of even consistency.   This will make enough pesto for two or three meals.  It keeps in the fridge for a couple of weeks. It can be frozen and will still be tasty but it is most delicious fresh.

Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Save some pasta water in a cup before draining in a colander.  After draining, pour the pasta back in the hot pot and add a great dollop of pesto, according to your taste. 

Mix thoroughly and serve.  (If you are not serving immediately, wait to add the pesto until you are ready. Loosen the pasta with some reserved pasta water first and warm through before adding the pesto.)

Serve topped with extra Parmesan.  This can be a complete meal on its own or it also makes a great side dish.   We served ours with a small fillet each of single-hook-caught wild salmon from Whole Foods, simply pan-fried in a non-stick skillet with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and a touch of olive oil.