Mon 18 Aug, 2003 12:32 pm
FARFALLE WITH LOX, BASIL, GINGER, LIME
Ingredients at hand:
1/2 pound of Farfalle by Da Checco, or other farfalle imported from italy.
3 to 4 tablespoons Butter, real, salted or unsalted
Half a thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into fat slivers
One fresh lime, sliced in half
several big fresh basil leaves, or lots of small ones.
1/8 pound lox-smoked salmon, fresh or freshly packaged. Cut into pieces of about an inch.
Procedure
Set pot of water to boil for pasta. Cover.
As the water nears boiling, heat butter in skillet without burning. Add the ginger and cook for a short time to heat the ginger. Turn off heat, add lox-smoked salmon pieces, mix a bit, and let the salmon and ginger in butter sit. I don't add salt since I use salted butter. You may want to add salt and or pepper.
When the water is at a rolling boil, add pasta, boil uncovered. When the pasta is nearing 'al dente', relight the skillet at low flame. When the pasta is 'al dente', drain into a colander, shake, and toss into butter, ginger, salmon mixture. Turn off heat. Mix well as you squeeze the lime, and tear and add the fresh basil. Serve from skillet onto plates or kept warm in oven or microwaved a short time (done perhaps while pasta is cooking).
This is not as tricky as I make it sound. I just happen to like my hot pasta not to hit a cold plate; the salmon is already cooked by the smoking process, and cooks enough more for texture just by the method above without cooking it longer. Cooking the basil and the lime juice is not a great idea because it is the fresh tastes blending that is so good.
Sound brand advice on the pasta and everything! Yay! Lot's of good stuff coming in! Good advice on the smoked salmon too.
This is one of five or six pasta recipes that my ex and I used to cook a lot because each of those recipes resulted in a dish that had discernable distinct flavors that blended and worked as a whole.
This one my ex (still "family") made up given what was in the fridge.
Several of the others were from a NY Times article on Le Cirque's pastas, so I won't add those.
Will keep thinking if I can remember anything else with any originality.
I know. There's a whole loaf bruschetta that we've done...
back later.
sounds good, I have too many in the head and not on paper gotta write more down lol
Osso, this looks fantastic. I may well try it... I'll let you know how I fare.
(I like that the ingredients are fairly straightforward and it looks easy to cook. Looks could be deceptive, though...)
Osso,
Sounds ripper, but....what is lox-smoked salmon? Is it a particular type of salmon, or particular smoking - or just particular? Wonder what it's called here?
Help, anyone? Cav?
It's the way it's cut, isn't it? (I think) Lox is sliced very thin.
I can't wait to try this recipe, Osso -- sounds scrumptious!
Well, gee, it's just lox, you know the pink fish that seems a tad uncooked, that people put on bagels with cream cheese?? I said lox smoked salmon - lox is, or are as the case may be, smoked - to emphasize that it is already "cooked". I said lox at all to distinguish it from what we have around here in salmon land, which is lots and lots of dry smoked salmon...done to keep it for lean salmon days.
So, there are two packages in my fridge -
1) Lox (it says in the corner) All natural (the next corner)
Under that it says Smoked salmon Old World Style and then Ingredients salmon, salt and natural smoke
2) the other package which contains what looks more like a chunk of fish, has the title Smoked Salmon, the words all natural, and the big word Garlic.
Both packages have a sticker saying King Salmon. (I live on the Pacific Coast).
I was trying to keep people from using number 2.
It is an easy dish. I do it without thought. I have tried it with fresh regular salmon and like the lox better, but it still works.
I am not so sure about amounts. I used half a package of the 4 0z packaged lox for half a pound of pasta...you could use less. I get it packaged up here. I remember buying lox in LA from a fish counter and having it wrapped and that being better lox than the prepackaged. It was expensive, and I always wanted some for bagels and some for this pasta dish. I think the fish counter lox from a place like Gelson's in LA is the best, if you can get it.
Now I am thinking of posting the Farfalle with Spinach, Ricotta, Parmigiano and Lemon recipe. That one is even easier and also has a nice blend of flavors. I have to check, maybe I did already...I've posted it somewhere.
Yes, lox slices are thin. If there is a nearby Jewish Deli, you've found it. Or them.
well, the lox so called are ...well, they seem to be less preserved..as in fresh lox...
Cav can no doubt straighten us out here with a better esplano.
OK,..hope I don't confuse this more.
Tradional lox are not smoked, they are preserved in a salty brine.
Nova Lox, which are the most common in the markets around here are lightly smoked and brined.
Hope this helps!
I dunno, read the label as smoked, but off hand I would tend to agree with you, with lox being LIGHTLY smoked and brined.
That is the ingredient I am pointing to, yep.
All this is only prolly confusing people. Just, y'know, get ahold of a small bit of lox....
So margo,..
Smoked salmon will work just fine, it may have a stronger smokey flavor, but I don't think that the difference will very noticeable.
Personally, I like a good smoke flavour, and lox that is not too spongy. My two favourites are Oven Head, and Jail Island, both from New Brunswick. Oven Head also ships fresh-only, never frozen.
http://www.ovenheadsmokers.com/
Jail Island Aquaculture (no website)
5 Salar Court
St. Georges
New Brunswick
E5C 2M9
Tel: (506) 755-3321
Fax: (506) 755-3073
E-mail:
[email protected]
Products: Atlantic salmon (whole)-fresh; Atlantic salmon fillets-fresh; Atlantic salmon steaks-fresh
Brand Names: Jail Island Salmon
I guess none of you run into the smoked salmon that I also see, besides lox...that is like a hunk of fish, relatively dry compared to the smoked salmon that is lox.
The difference must be that lox is brined, and doesn't stick around long.
Since no one knows what I am talking about, chances are you won't be confused by the unbrined smoked salmon.
Both brined (lox) and unbrined (not lox) are available in all the markets where I live.
Well, here goes an ignorant question...Margo, do you have salmon in Australia???
I suppose you could use other fish, but my own attraction to this recipe involves the flavor of salmon...
Osso, I know what you're talking about -- the packaged stuff that's just a big, dry chunk, almost like salmon-jerkey.
However, I can get smoked salmon, sliced thin (and may pick up some tonight). I understand the distinction you're trying to make. Bloody terminology. I've never seen it labelled as "lox".
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