Linguine with Smoked Salmon

I have the privilege of running a cooking school in San Francisco. Ten years ago, I would not have seen me in this role at all. Truth be told, I thought my only professional love would always be with restaurants. I loved the pace and chaos of it and not being a part of that seemed ludicrous. I am definitely the type that fares well in the mess of things. But after a stint in the restaurant game and way too many power struggles with chefs/managers who often liked to exercise their power in making me legit crazy, I knew it was time to put the love affair on pause. That love brought me to tears for the best and worst reasons and, while I could mostly rationalize my way through it, it started to feel more like an imbalanced relationship and the green lit exit sign looked more and more attractive.

Enter Cooking School opportunity, stage right. The stars aligned and I landed a gig supporting a director of a cooking school and that’s when it all started to click. This was the restaurant game but a lighter, more democratic version of it. I could definitely get into this. I spent just over two years in a support role before I moved on and became the Jane of All Trades at the current school that I run. It’s not only been a great experience, but it’s also given me more ways to explore my own cooking. More vocabulary, more understanding of techniques and the reasons why certain things are done and definitely more education on flavor profiles. Couple that with all of the restaurants that I am going to and the landscape just got really broad and refined.

I’ve never been the type to read a full recipe. I’ve almost always skimmed it, made quick shorthand notes and just went for it. The best part of cooking is that, for the most part, it is really forgiving. If I catch a mistake early enough, it can be corrected. Seasoning can be adjusted and tweaked. There is a perfect symmetry in the way I cook and the way I go about life in general. My personal mantra has been: act now, ask questions later. In turn, my confidence in cooking is slowly inching its way to being more positive and I’ve become less reliant on recipes. I enjoy getting into the kitchen with a smattering of ingredients and just seeing what I can come up with.

The other day, I had a huge craving for pasta and smoked salmon. And instead of just choosing one over the other, I thought, Why not do both? It could work. I had some flavors in my head that I thought would marry well and it was off to the grocery tout suite and sans recipe or any idea of how much to actually purchase. See, seat of my pants – it’s just what I do. After meandering semi-aimlessly through the grocery store, here’s what was purchased:

• Linguine

• Fruity olive oil (I like Arbequina olive oil)

• Italian parsley

• Dill

• Shallots

• Heavy cream

• Creme fraiche

• Smoked salmon

• Frozen peas

I jetted home, cranked up some music, tied my hair up, and started cooking. First, I boiled off the pasta, while I ate some cheesy garlic laden bread to keep the impending starvation off. While the pasta was going, I made quick work of slicing up the smoked salmon, and mincing up the Italian parsley and dill. When the pasta was done, I strained it, reserving some of the pasta water just case I needed to tweak the sauce.

Using the same pot, I added a fat pad of butter and got the shallots going. Once they were a wee bit brown and the smell of butter and shallots made me salivate, in went the heavy cream, creme fraiche and a bit of salt and pepper. I brought it to a nice and gentle simmer and threw in the dill and frozen peas. Then the name of the game becomes Taste, Adjust, Taste Again. I did this until I got the flavors where I wanted them to be.

Then I added the pasta, smoked salmon, and parsley, and voila. I plated my dish and finished it off with a light drizzle of the olive oil to give it a lemony-zip and that, my friends, was a done deal.

I won’t be cute and say that I daintily enjoyed that bowl of pasta because that just isn’t who I am. I hauled through that bad boy and made mental notes as I went. While it did taste really good, the sauce was a little heavy handed on the cream side. I should have stuck with the creme fraiche and maybe subbed in sour cream instead to give the sauce a little body and an acidic note. Using heavy cream and creme fraiche would not be kind for your mildly lactose intolerant friends. I definitely could have used more salt. For the life of me, as much as I love salt, I’m always salt shy in my own cooking. I must use salt more aggressively and not be so afraid of it!

The dish didn’t tank so let’s note some positives. Cooking 101 did not fail me and the pasta had a nice chew to it. The smoked salmon did in fact go well with cream and dill, so hooray for me there! I do sometimes know that what I’m thinking up does actually work! I liked using the frozen peas; they still had some snap in them when it was all said and done. And I’m going to say good call on the the finishing olive oil as it brightened the dish up. All in all, I’ll say the dish was a success and I would definitely make it again with some adjustments. Not bad for just going at it blind. If Ed McMahon were here and I presented this on Star Search (and if Star Search were a cooking show), I’d hope he’d announce the judges gave me 3.5 stars. Take that, Beyonce!

Now, get to forking!