Miso Buttered Pasta and Salmon

Miso Buttered Noodles with Mushrooms, Carrots, and Sugar and Spice Salmon

Pasta tossed in a silky miso butter sauce, with sautéed shiitake mushrooms, bitter greens, and miso roasted carrots, then topped with flaky sugar and spice coated salmon. This elegant, umami rich dish tastes like something you’d expect from a fine dining restaurant, but comes together in about 35 minutes.

I, along with most of the rest of the world, am kind of obsessed with miso. Using miso in a dish feels like cheating because its salty, funky, umami rich flavor somehow manages to increase the depth and complexity to a massively disproportionate degree. It’s like a secret weapon (even though it’s used all over the world and not really a secret).

Your sauce is tasting a bit flat? Add some miso.

You’re feeling lazy but still want a home cooked meal? Coat anything – meat, poultry, veggies – with some miso and butter, roast and you’re done.

Your soup tastes a bit lackluster? Stir in a couple spoonfuls of miso.

You know you should eat a salad but really want to eat a burger? Whisk some miso into the dressing. (Ok. It won’t be the same. But it’ll getcha at least halfway there.)

What is miso?

Originating in Japan hundreds (perhaps thousands) of years ago. Miso is simply a fermented paste made with soybeans and koji – a kind of mold cultivated from rice, barley, or soybeans. Most of the miso available here in the US uses koji made with rice, but if you search, you can find miso that’s been made with barley or from 100% soybeans. You can even find miso-like concoctions made from beans and grains other than soy, such as farro, chickpeas, and lima beans.

As is the case with most fermented foods, miso takes weeks – even months or years – to make. As it ferments, microorganisms break down the soybeans, forming a variety of amino acids, simple sugars, and fatty acids.

Translation: Fermentation creates layers, and layers, and layers of salty, earthy, complex flavor.

An even better translation: Miso is magical.

Wanna know what else is magical? Oven-ready cedar planked salmon fillets.

Cedar Bay Grilling Company’s Sugar and Spice Cedar Planked Salmon is available in most major supermarkets, and requires little more than removing the packaging, sprinkling with salt (if you like), and popping it in the oven (or on the grill).

In this recipe, the salmon is cooked right on it’s cedar plank alongside miso coated carrots, both roasting at the same temperature, while you make the pasta. Having already seasoned, oven-ready salmon is what makes it possible to cook this dish in about 35 minutes. 🙌

Also, the slightly sweet sugar and spice coating on the salmon is a perfect compliment to the salty, earthy flavors of miso, caramelized shiitake mushrooms, and bitter greens.

More Delicious Pasta Recipes:

• 20-minute Garlic and Chipotle Pasta with Chicken
• Slow Cooker Short Rib Pasta
• Vegetarian Spaghetti Carbonara 
• Spaghetti Puttanesca 

Miso Buttered Pasta and Salmon

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★★★★★

5 from 8 reviews

• Author: RebeccaBlackwell
• Total Time: 35 minutes
• Yield: 4-6 servings

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Description

Pasta tossed in a silky miso butter sauce, with sautéed shiitake mushrooms, bitter greens, and miso roasted carrots, then topped with flaky sugar and spice coated salmon.

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Ingredients

For the Carrots and the Salmon:

• 1 Cedar Bay Sugar and Spice Salmon Fillet, defrosted according to package instructions
• 8 medium size carrots, peeled, ends trimmed
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 tsp white miso paste
• salt and ground black pepper

For the Pasta:

• salt and pepper
• 16 ounces (1 pound or 454 grams) spaghetti noodles (*see note)
• 8 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
• 5–6 ounces shiitake mushrooms, cut into 1/4 inch slices
• 1 medium shallot, minced (you should have about 1/4 cup)
• 1 tsp minced fresh garlic
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 cups roughly chopped turnip greens (or, use mustard greens, Swiss chard, or spinach leaves)
• 1/4 cup white miso paste
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh basil

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Instructions

Roast the Carrots and the Salmon:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Put the butter and miso paste in a small microwave save bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, just until you can stir them together into a soft, slightly melted paste.
3. Lay the carrots in a small baking dish and use a pastry brush or your fingers to smear the butter and miso paste all over the carrots. Sprinkle with about 1/4 tsp salt and ground pepper.
4. Remove the thawed salmon from the packaging, leaving it on the cedar plank. Sprinkle the surface with a generous amount of salt.
5. Place the salmon (leaving it on its cedar plank) and carrots in the preheated oven. Roast the salmon until it reaches a core temperature of 158°F. This will take approximately 12-15 minutes. (Follow package instructions.) Roast the carrots, uncovered, until crisp tender. This will take approximately 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of the carrots.
6. While the salmon and carrots cook, make the pasta. (If the salmon and carrots are ready before the pasta, remove from the oven and cover loosely with aluminum foil to keep warm.)

Make the Pasta:

1. Fill a large saucepan with water and add 1 tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil. Cook the pasta until it’s just slightly undercooked. You want it to be just shy of “al dente“. Drain in a colander in the sink, reserving 3/4 cup of the cooking liquid.  Rinse the pasta briefly with cold water, just to stop it from cooking.
2. Put 4 tablespoons of butter into a large, heavy bottom saucepan (you might use the same pan you used to cook the pasta) and set it over medium heat. When the butter is melted, add the sliced mushrooms, sprinkling them with about 1/2 tsp of salt and black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are beginning to caramelize.
3. Add the shallot to the pan and cook, stirring frequently, until they are soft and just beginning to brown.
4. Add the minced garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, and greens to the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, for 1-2 minutes, until the greens are wilted.
5. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter to the saucepan and stir until melted. Add the miso paste and reserved pasta water. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly, and cook until the sauce thickens slightly, about 2 minutes.
6. Add the pasta to the saucepan and cook, tossing the pasta in the sauce, until heated through, about 2 minutes.
7. Remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle in the fresh basil.
8. Serve plates of pasta topped with a generous portion of salmon and a couple of roasted carrots on the side.

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Notes

• Pasta: Dried pasta or homemade, fresh pasta work well in this recipe. If purchasing dried spaghetti noodles, get the thickest ones you can find. If making fresh pasta, roll the dough only to about 4 or 5 thickness. Thicker spaghetti noodles give the delicious miso butter sauce more pasta to cling to.

Keywords: pasta, miso, noodles, salmon, easy recipe, healthy recipe, seafood