Penne with Cream and Smoked Salmon

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Penne with cream and smoked salmon is a delight for the eyes and the taste buds. It’s ready by the time the pasta is cooked and will please any pasta lover. The simplicity and minimalistic use of ingredients showcase how cooking can be deceptively simple yet result in a highly sophisticated dish.

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🧾 Ingredients
📋 Equipment
🔪 Mise en place
🥘 Cooking
🍽 Serving
📖 Substitutions
❓ FAQ
What is the difference between smoked salmon and gravlax?
📝 Recipe

🧾 Ingredients

3 main ingredients and a couple of pantry items, it doesn't get better than this.

Smoked Salmon
Penne
Fresh Thyme
Butter
Heavy Cream
Kosher Salt
Black Pepper

This smoked salmon pasta is stripped down to the bare minimums. No garlic, no lemon juice, no cream cheese, no parmesan, no capers. This recipe will make you a believer that less really is more. No Instant pot either 😉.

See the recipe card below for full list of ingredients and their measurements.

📋 Equipment

As is the case so often, a delicious meal doesn't need any fancy equipment. A pot, a saute pan, and some scissors. Plus a colander or spider to drain the pasta.

🔪 Mise en place

Normally, I strongly advise mise en place, meaning to get everything together before turning on a burner, but in this case, the most cooking time will be used in bringing the pasta water to boil. We’ll have plenty of time to get the rest done. So let’s get started.

🥘 Cooking

Fill up a pot with water, place it on the burner, and turn it on. Put a lid on to speed up the boiling process.

Unpack the smoked salmon and - using kitchen scissors - cut into thin strips, ¼” to ½”.

Use kitchen scissors to cut the salmon into ¼” to ½” strips. — Use kitchen scissors to cut the salmon into ¼” to ½” strips (Photo by Viana Boenzli)

Remove the thyme leaves from the stem but also keep a couple of stems with the leaves on for garnish.

Once the pasta water starts to boil, add a generous amount of kosher salt (about 1-½ tablespoons) and 8 ounces of penne. Cook according to the instructions on the package (or slightly less to keep it nice and al dente).

I like to control the boiling pasta water with the lid partially on, separated by the wooden spoon I'm using to stir anyway.

When the pasta has a couple of minutes left to go, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. Stir in ½ cup heavy cream, about half of the salmon, and half of the thyme leaves. Don’t let it boil, just simmer for a minute.

Add ½ cup of pasta water, ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt and gently cook for about four minutes. Stir a few times.

Taste and add more salt if necessary but don’t forget: by adding the rest of the uncooked smoked salmon before serving, that will add a little more saltiness anyway.

Simmer (not boil) the salmon in the cream and butter. — Simmer (not boil) the salmon in the cream and butter (Photo by Erich Boenzli)

Drain the pasta and toss into the saucepan with the sauce. Give it a gentle stir until the penne is evenly covered.

Taste the sauce and mix with the cooked pasta. — Taste the sauce and mix with the cooked pasta (Photo by Erich Boenzli)

🍽 Serving

Divide among two plates (for a main course) or four plates (for an appetizer) and top with the remaining salmon and thyme leaves. Serve immediately.

I like to have it with a couple slices of french baguette and maybe a nice glass of unoaked chardonnay.

Plate and add remaining uncooked salmon, garnish with thyme. — Plate and add remaining uncooked salmon, garnish with thyme (Photo by Erich Boenzli)

📖 Substitutions

Smoked Salmon - Some stores sell a very similar product called Gravlax, which works very nicely too. If you prefer to skip seafood altogether, though, prosciutto works just perfectly. Use the prosciutto exactly as the salmon in this recipe.
Penne - Any short pasta shape works fine, use your favorite.
Thyme - You could also use marjoram, oregano, or tarragon. Heck, if you have some fresh basil, chiffonade a couple of leaves and add them when serving.
When it comes to the butter and heavy cream part, sorry, no substitutions here. When using only a few ingredients like in this dish, these two dairies are the “glue” that brings the three main ingredients together.

⭐ Remember: When it comes to cooking, the only thing better than butter is more butter.

❓ FAQ

What is the difference between smoked salmon and gravlax?

Gravlax is similar to smoked salmon except that it hasn’t been smoked and was cured - in addition to salt - in dill and other spices and often vodka or aquavit.
To make it even more confusing, there’s also lox. Lox is most often associated with bagels and is expected to be smoked salmon. But that’s not always the case. Some lox is not smoked.

Can I use dried herbs instead of fresh herbs?

For a dish with just a few ingredients and the herb is one of the three mains, I highly recommend using fresh herbs. Yes, you can use dried herbs.

Sometimes I feel that dried herbs concentrate their specific aromas to a point where it can be a little too strong.

On the other side, dried herbs lose their quality quickly and can turn into a hay-tasting herb experience. So make sure to taste any dry herb before using, especially the ones in the back of your pantry with an expiration date of…

⭐ A General Rule: If a recipe calls for 3 teaspoon of fresh herbs, use 1 teaspoon of dried herbs and vice versa.

When a recipe uses butter, does that mean salted or unsalted butter?

Unless there’s a very specific reason (for example, in some baking recipes), using salted or unsalted butter is up to you. 99% of recipes require adding some salt to enhance flavor either way.
Don’t overthink salted/unsalted. Use what you have and taste before serving. Tasting is more important than which butter you use. Tasting is when you are in control of the outcome of your dish. Regularly taste throughout preparing your meals. Make it a habit and your end results will improve dramatically.

When do you start the timer to cook the pasta “according to package instructions”?

Once your water starts to boil and you add the salt to the boiling water, it will bubble furiously. That’s when you add the pasta. Make sure you add all the pasta at once so they’ll cook evenly.

Once all the pasta is submerged, give it a quick stir with a spoon and put the lid back on to get the water back to a boil as quickly as possible.

Start your timer the moment the water returns to a boil. Remove or partially remove the lid, reduce the heat slightly, and keep the water at least at a good simmer for the required cooking time.

If you’re adding the pasta to a warm saucepan to mix everything before serving (which I highly recommend), drain the pasta 1 minute earlier than the instructions tell you.

As is the case so often, a delicious meal doesn't need any fancy equipment. A pot, a saute pan, and some scissors. Plus a colander or spider to drain the pasta.

What is the difference between smoked salmon and gravlax?

⭐ A General Rule: If a recipe calls for 3 teaspoon of fresh herbs, use 1 teaspoon of dried herbs and vice versa.

Creamy smoked salmon with penne and thyme. — Creamy Smoked Salmon with Penne and Thyme (Photo by Erich Boenzli)

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Did you make this Penne with Cream and Smoked Salmon? Let us know in the comments below!

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