Recipe : Creamy Smoked Salmon Pasta

I stole this photo from their website too - bad!

I found this fab and easy recipe on one of my new favourite blogs, www.domesticsl*ttery.com (the home and lifestyle blog for women who have better things to do) - and, yes, I have put a "*" where the "u" would be to wind back the NSFW of the name.  And for those of you that think I've gone off the rails putting "rude sex stuff" (I so did not!) on my blog, here's what the writers of the blog have to say about themselves:-

The Domestic Sluts like their ordinary things to be extraordinary. We want our homes to look good, we want damn tasty food and we want our outfits to be unusual. But we're busy and we enjoy being a little bit lazy. We'd much rather go out dancing than tidying up. Frankly, a five course meal sounds like far too much effort and our idea of 'decorating' is to hide a spaghetti stain on the sofa with a nice cushion. If you think we're going to spend hours in a shopping centre, you're mistaken. We're probably tipsy. Or napping. We do like a nap.

We're a UK-based blog, with male and female writers across the country (all with our own tastes and opinions) discovering the best in design, fashion, food and travel. We don't for a minute think that cupcakes can save the world, but cake will always make you smile on a rubbish day. We'll never tell you about a faceless hotel chain, we want our adventures a little more interesting than that.

We basically want to cheat our way to the good stuff and ignore the crap bits of life for a while. You should come exploring with us.

So, you can all relax now and get cooking on this really yummy pasta.  I know I normally only post recipes for cakes (because, who doesn't love cake?), but I think everyone likes to throw an easy new dinner recipe into rotation, and this one rocks.  My notes, as usual, in italics:-

Creamy Smoked Salmon Pasta (serves 2)

• 150g pasta, any shape you like (I don't think 150g is enough for two people, and I used 250g of pasta shaped like little horses that I found in the back of my pantry - not sure how old it is, but pasta doesn't really go off, does it?)
• one small onion finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed (I used more, because we LOVE garlic)
• 240g smoked salmon trimmings (I used a 200gm pack from the supermarket.  They didn't have "trimmings", so this was proper smoked salmon, but it was still less than €3/pack)
• Glug of white wine/gin/whisky (I used gin, and probably more than a "slug" because I spilled it all over the stove top whilst being generous)
• Squeeze of lemon, optional (I used the juice of a whole lemon that I found in the bottom of the crisper - tasted fab!)
• Pinch of smoked paprika, optional
• 200ml sour cream (I used low fat, because I couldn't find any other kind in the supermarket)
• Lots of black pepper

1. Get a pan of salted water boiling for the pasta - if you're using dried then pop it in at the beginning (once the water is boiling, natch), if you've got fresh pasta then hold off to the last few minutes to cook it.
2. Saute the onions over a medium heat in some oil (you can add a knob of butter for a little extra flavour if you like) for about 6 minutes before adding garlic.  Cook for a further few minutes.
3. Throw in the salmon (I chopped mine up a bit first because it was in fillet form) and stir so it starts to get cooked through.
4. Once half of the salmon has turned white, pop in your glut of desired alcohol and let it reduce for a few minutes, adding the lemon juice and paprika if using.
5. When the liquid has reduced, add the sour cream and raise the heat slightly so the sauce begins to bubble a little.
6. Keep string constantly for about 5-8 minutes and take off the heat.  (I didn't stir constantly, I was trying to get the spilled gin off the stove elements - the waste!).
7. Drain your cooked pasta and put it back int the saucepan.
8. Pour the creamy salmon sauce over the top and mix thoroughly so every bit of pasta gets coated.  (I tipped the pasta into the sauce instead of the other way around - rebel!)
9. Throw in a load of black pepper and give it one last mix - and you're done!