The only thing that my husband, Sean, loves as much as his kids is fishing. The last time his dad was out visiting from Newfoundland, Sean took him fishing and they caught two 8 lb. salmon. They were beautiful, pink and just waiting to be dinner. The first one we cooked right away and ate until we were stuffed. The second we froze and saved for sharing with our family. Somehow there were leftovers, and since we had dinner plans all week, I threw the cooked salmon into the freezer to do something with later. There was no way I was wasting a single bit of that amazing Salmon.

I haven’t been able to come up with anything brilliant to do with this salmon until one night when all I could think about was a delicious, creamy pasta. Thankfully I had everything on hand to make this amazing dish. It has a wonderful combination of fresh lemon with crisp peas, a creamy sauce and amazing salmon. Really, it turned out a hundred times better then I expected and I couldn’t wait to share it.

I’ve used a combination of cream cheese and milk to lower the overall fat since I’m also using butter and parmesan. If you aren’t lucky enough to have some salmon just lying around, this pasta would work with any seafood. I could see fresh shrimp, scallops or prawns on top or a fillet of your favourite fish.

This recipe will serve 4 people

Creamy Lemon, Pea and Mushroom Penne with Salmon

200 g Penne Pasta or about half a box

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp canola oil
½ diced onion
2 cups sliced cremini or button mushrooms
1 crushed clove garlic
1 tsp lemon zest
¼ cup chopped parsley
1 cup small frozen peas
1 tbsp cream cheese
½ cup parmesan cheese
1 cup milk

Salt and pepper

To make this a quick meal I do any cutting, chopping, zesting and smooshing. Next, I get my water on the stove and then start the sauce. By the time the pasta is ready the sauce is too

Bring a pot salted water to a boil and add Penne, cook until al dente. Most packages give really accurate times.

Melt butter over medium heat and add oil. Sauté onions until translucent. Add mushrooms and cook for a few minutes until they have reabsorbed any liquid the released. Stir in the garlic, lemon zest and parsley.

Add the frozen peas

Reduce the heat to low and melt in the cream cheese.Once the cheese has melted add the milk and parmesan. Continue to stir gently until the sauce comes together.
Season with salt and pepper.

Top with Salmon

See, isn’t that the easiest and yummiest? I plan on making this pasta again and again and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. To see how this fits into my families weekly meal plan here’s the link to it, Meal Plan