Farfalle al Salmone

I love salmon!  Be it sashimi, smoked, or spread, I think it's just yum!  Do you know the life cycle of a (wild) salmon?  Most of you probably don't know.  The first time I heard of it, it kind of made me depressed; and now writing about it, I got depressed again.  So here it goes:

So it starts with the egg from the river, and when the egg hatches and turns into a small salmon fish (a fry), it follows the current down the stream; it will grow up there, spend it's childhood and when they turn 18 (i mean, turn into an adult), they'll swim upstream (yes, against the current) and mate there.  After mating, they lay their eggs and die!  (Yeah! Die.)   This is not to mention the bears waiting for them at the river!  Read more about them here.

It's morbid, but they're delicious, like this recipe!

You'll need:

a piece of salmon fillet, cubed quarter inch pieces
garlic, chopped
heavy cream
parmesan cheese
baby spinach leaves (optional)
tomatoes, fine dice (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
farfalle pasta, you can use any kind of pasta that you want

Cook the pasta according to the packaging, drain and sprinkle a little parmesan cheese, it'll make it creamier.

First, put some (olive) oil into the pan, then put in the garlic right away.  You do not want for the oil to heat up before you put in the garlic because it will burn, and you just wanna infuse the garlic flavor into the oil.  Then Put in the salmon, mix it a little until it's almost cooked.  Do not vigorously stir the salmon or else it'll flake.

Some would probably disagree with me by putting in the salmon so early in the cooking process because you don't want to over cook it, but it is more important for me that my pasta do not smell so fishy.  Sometimes fresh salmon gives this really strong fish odor, and if you don't cook it first, it'll just boil with the cream and I think it's going to ruin the dish.  This, i think, is the Chinese way of cooking that I've grown to adapt.  Unless if you get your salmon, smoked and ready to eat, then I guess it's best to mix it in the last part.

Pour in the heavy cream and some stock, the ratio is really up to you, I'd say the ratio should be around 3:1.  Let the cream boil and then throw in alot of parmesan cheese, I'd say prolly about 1/4 cup.  Let it thicken, then salt and pepper to taste.  If you opt to add spinach leaves,  (you can put the smoked salmon, if you aren't using fresh) put it in at this point and let it wilt and boil with the sauce. .  The tomatoes, just to give color, mix it into the finished sauce.

You can scoop the sauce over the pasta or just mix the pasta into the sauce, make sure that it's still saucy.  Mix pasta in last minute because it sucks up all the sauce and it'll make it dry.

Serve hot and sprinkle even more parmesan chesese on top and a little fresh black pepper.  Buon Appetito!