Pan-fried salmon, flaked into tender pieces and served with spaghetti and courgetti in a light lemon cream sauce. Mixing the spaghetti with the courgetti gives the dish an even lighter feel, plus the courgetti is barely noticeable, so my kids eat it all, no problem!
I love this as a lighter dinner that still has the comfort of pasta and a creamy sauce.
I’m often guilty of cooking too much pasta, but this recipe, with the addition of the spiralized courgetti (zucchini) reminds me to reduce it down a little, whilst still making sure I get a nice, decent portion size!
You can replace the pasta entirely with courgetti (zoodles) if you like, but I can’t live without my pasta. So I won’t be doing that 😁
📋 What do we need?
- Salmon – you only need 3 salmon fillets to feed four people in this recipe, as the salmon is flaked into nice little chunky pieces, once it’s cooked.
- Courgetti/zoodles – your can by these courgette noodles from larger supermarkets in the salad section. If you want to make your own, you’ll need a spiralizer. I have this one (<–affiliate link).
📺 Watch how to make it
Full recipe with detailed steps in the recipe card at the end of this post.
👩🍳PRO TIP Be sure to save some of the water you cooked the pasta in. We add in a good splash of this lovely starchy water to the pan, near the end of cooking, to help produce a light, silky sauce for the spaghetti.
🍽️ What to serve it with
- Top with shaved parmesan, a good grind of black pepper and a little lemon zest. I like to serve with a lemon wedge too.
- You could also add some garlic bread and/or a nice simple salad.
Perfect light creamy pasta with al dente sugar snap peas, a little courgetti hidden in there and nice chunky flakes of tender salmon ❤️
🍲 More recipes with salmon
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Pan Fried Salmon with Spaghetti and Cream Lemon Sauce
Ingredients
- 250 g (8.8 oz) dried spaghetti
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ⅛ tsp salt
- ⅛ tsp black pepper
- 3 boneless salmon fillets
- 1 small onion peeled and chopped
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and minced
- 2 tbsp white wine optional
- 5 tbsp double (heavy) cream
- zest of 1 lemon
- 85 g (1 cup) sugar snap peas (snow peas) roughly chopped
- 1 small courgette (zucchini) spiralized or cut into thin strips
- juice of 1/2 a lemon
To Serve:
- 2-4 tbsp shaved parmesan
- pinch black pepper
- lemon zest
- lemon Wedges
Instructions
- Place the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling water and simmer for 10-13 minutes – until cooked to your liking. Note – you'll be adding the sugar snap peas and courgette to the spaghetti for the last minute of cooking.250 g (8.8 oz) dried spaghetti
- Whilst the spaghetti is cooking, heat the oil in a large frying pan, over a medium-high heat.1 tbsp olive oil
- Sprinkle the salt and pepper on the flesh of the salmon fillets and place in the frying pan, skin-side-down. Cook for 3 minutes, until the skin is crispy.1/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp black pepper, 3 boneless salmon fillets
- Turn the salmon over and add the chopped onions to the pan. Cook the salmon and onions for a further 3 minutes, until the onions start to soften.1 small onion
- Take the salmon out of the pan and place on a chopping board.
- Add the garlic to the onions and cook for a minute whilst stirring. Add the wine and let it bubble for a minute, then add in the cream and turn the heat down to medium.2 cloves garlic, 2 tbsp white wine, 5 tbsp double (heavy) cream
- Whilst the cream is heating through, remove the skin from the salmon, and break the salmon into rough chunks (don't worry if it's not quite cooked at this point as it's going back in the pan). Add the salmon back into the pan along with the lemon zest.zest of 1 lemon
- By now the spaghetti should be almost ready. Add the sugar snap peas and spiralised courgette in with the spaghetti for the last minute of cooking.85 g (1 cup) sugar snap peas (snow peas), 1 small courgette (zucchini)
- Drain the pasta, reserving about half a cup of the cooking water.
- Add the spaghetti, sugar snaps and courgette to the frying pan and toss through along with the lemon juice and a couple of splashes of the reserved pasta water.juice of 1/2 a lemon
- Divide between four bowls and top with grated parmesan, freshly ground black pepper, and a little bit of lemon zest. Serve with lemon wedges.2-4 tbsp shaved parmesan, pinch black pepper, lemon zest, lemon Wedges
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This recipe was first published in March 2018. Updated June 2023 with new photos, video, a couple of small recipe tweaks and some housekeeping.
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love this recipe, I used shrimp because I had that on hand, but i will make it with salmon next time.