1 Lidded casserole dish, that can go from stove top to oven If you don't have one you can cover an oven-proof dish with foil to create a lid.
Ingredients
1Tablespoonolive oil
1leek sliced120 grams
2clovesgarlic minced
500grampastaRigatoni, Penne or similar
1000millilitres vegetable stock
340millilitres evaporated milk
½teaspoonsalt
400gramssalmon
150gramssour cream
150gramsgrated cheese2 cups
250gramspeas
50gramsbaby spinach leaves
Instructions
Heat oven to 180 degrees celsius
Pin bone, skin and cube the salmon.
Slice the leek (wash in a colander if needed) sometimes sneaky dirt can hang out in the layers. Crush the garlic.
In a large fry skillet, that has a lid and is also oven-proof, heat the olive oil. (if you don't have a lidded oven-proof skillet you can use on the stove, don't worry, just use a regular fry pan or saucepan and you can transfer to a lidded casserole dish before it goes into the oven.
Sauté the leek and garlic, until softened and fragrant.
Add the dry pasta, then cover with the stock and evaporated milk
Top with the cubed salmon, cover and bake for 20 minutes
Combine the cheese and sour cream, and stir this through the hot-cooked pasta.
Also, stir through the peas and spinach, and return to the oven for a further 5 mins.
Enjoy!
Notes
Make sure the oven is hot, and the pasta is covered in liquid when you put it in the oven, otherwise the pasta won't cook.
Serve this pasta bake with a crisp salad, it's quite rich so fresh iceberg lettuce on the side can be lovely.
Leek: If you don't have leek you can use onion, I find leek is a bit sweeter and goes well with the salmon, but you could totally use sliced onion.
Pasta: I like to use a large tube pasta like Rigatonior, Penne but other shapes will work too, macaroni, spirals etc.
Vegetable stock: I like to use vegetable stock, but you could use fish stock if you want a stronger flavouring in the salmon pasta bake recipe.
Evaporated milk: I use canned evaporated milk, it is a different product from reduced cream or condensed milk, but you will find it in the long-life milk section of the supermarket. I like it as an alternative to cream it does not split.
Salmon: To be a salmon pasta bake you will of course need salmon, but you could create a fish pasta bake with any firm white fish. You can also use drained canned salmon if you prefer.