Salmon alfredo is a creamy and flavorful meal that's easy enough to make on a busy weeknight. Fettuccine pasta and flaked salmon are tossed in a homemade alfredo sauce.
If you're looking for a restaurant quality dish that is sure to impress dinner guests - give this salmon alfredo a try. While it's quick enough to make for a weeknight meal, it can easily pass for a fancy dinner entrée!
Fettuccine pasta is tossed in a creamy and flavorful homemade alfredo sauce with tender baked salmon. The addition of starchy pasta water makes the sauce extra creamy without feeling too heavy or rich.
Serve your salmon alfredo on its own or with a garden salad and garlic bread to stretch this meal even further.
Ingredients and substitutions
- Pasta - Dried fettuccine or fresh homemade pasta works in this recipe. Substitute 8 ounces of dried pasta with about 12 ounces of fresh pasta.
- Salmon - You'll need salmon fillets with or without skin for this recipe. If your salmon is frozen, thaw it before beginning with this recipe.
- Butter - The base of the alfredo sauce. I don't recommend substituting with oil for the best flavor.
- Heavy cream - A must for a thick, creamy sauce without the need for additional thickening agents. Using other dairy products like milk will result in a very thin sauce.
- Parmesan cheese - A must for alfredo sauce. Your cheese must be fresh grated from a block for smooth melting and best flavor.
- Garlic - Fresh minced garlic adds exceptional flavor to your alfredo sauce. If you don't have garlic cloves on hand, they can be substituted with garlic powder (added with your other seasonings). I don't recommend using jarred garlic because it often has a harsh, unpleasant flavor.
- Seasoning - Salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning add mild savory flavor. Can be store bought or homemade (try my recipe for Italian seasoning). If you don't have Italian seasoning, substitute with equal parts of any dried Italian herbs you have on hand, like oregano, basil, sage, marjoram, rosemary, or thyme.
Tips and tricks
Freshly grate your parmesan cheese - Freshly grated parmesan cheese is a must for a creamy and smooth alfredo sauce. Pre-shredded cheeses (or green canisters of cheese) are coated in anti-clumping powders. When melted, these powders make your sauce grainy (and sometimes prevent your cheese from melting at all).
How to grate cheese - Parmesan cheese can be grated with a variety of kitchen tools, like a microplane, a box grater, or a handheld grater. If you're feeling fancy and like to grate a lot of parmesan, invest in a rotary cheese grater. Here are a few tools for grating cheese:
- Microplane Classic Fine Grater/Zester on Amazon
- Cuisinart Boxed Grater on Amazon
- OXO Good Grips Handheld Grater on Amazon
- Classic Rotary Cheese Grater-NSF Restaurant Certified on Amazon
Why reserve pasta water? - Once your pasta has finished cooking, the boiling water will look slightly cloudy. This pasta water contains starches that have been released from the pasta while it cooks. Adding this reserved pasta water to your alfredo sauce later will make it rich, thick, and creamy, but not heavy.
Forget to reserve pasta water? - To substitute 1 cup of pasta water, add ¼ teaspoon of cornstarch to a cup of water and whisk until dissolved.
Storage
Alfredo sauce generally does not keep well as a leftover. Cream based sauces do not freeze well and alfredo sauce in particular does not reheat well.
When reheated, the sauce separates - one part is gloppy/cheesy and the other part is pure butter. This happens because the emulsion breaks. An emulsion is formed between the liquids and the fats during the cooking process. That emulsion breaks when heat is applied in the microwave or on the stovetop.
If you'd like to attempt to reheat your alfredo, I recommend using very low heat and adding a splash of heavy cream during the reheating process.
For best results, I recommend only making the amount of alfredo sauce you're planning on eating in one serving. It's easy to make a fresh batch in about 10 minutes to toss on leftover pasta the next day.
Frequently asked questions
This dish is hearty enough to serve on its own. To stretch the servings further, it could be served with cheesy garlic bread, cheese stuffed biscuits, or an Italian chopped salad.
8 ounces of pasta water can be substituted with 8 ounces of regular water plus ¼ teaspoon of cornstarch.
This recipe makes enough sauce to lightly coat your pasta without excess pooling in the bottom of the bowl. If you love very saucy pasta, I recommend doubling the recipe.
Recommended
📖 Recipe
Salmon Alfredo
Ingredients
- 12 ounces salmon fillets
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 8 ounces dry fettuccine
Alfredo sauce
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 ½ cups freshly grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425℉. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place salmon fillets, skin side down, onto baking sheet. Season with salt and pepper and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until salmon flakes apart easily in the center with a fork. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly before flaking salmon apart with a fork. Set aside.
- Meanwhile, bring a stock pot of salted water to a boil. Cook fettuccine according to package directions for al dente pasta. Before draining, ladle out 8 ounces of pasta water and set aside. Drain pasta and return stock pot to the stove.
- Over medium heat, add butter to the stock pot. Once melted and bubbling, add minced garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add heavy cream, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Stir and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until sauce has thickened slightly. Add parmesan cheese and stir until melted.
- Reduce heat to low. Add your cooked fettuccine and ½ to ¾ cup of reserved pasta water to the pot and stir to incorporate (add more reserved pasta water as needed to achieved desired sauce consistency). Add flaked salmon and toss to coat just before serving.
Equipment Recommendations
Notes
- Sauce: This recipe makes just enough sauce to lightly coat your pasta and salmon. If you love lots of sauce, I recommend doubling the sauce portion of the recipe.
- Reserved pasta water: Forget to reserve some of your pasta water? Add ¼ teaspoon of cornstarch to 8 ounces of water and whisk until completely dissolved.
- Leftovers: Alfredo sauce does not do well as a leftover - sauce will separate (the emulsion breaks) when reheated in the microwave or on the stove top.
- Heavy cream: Substituting heavy cream with half & half or milk will make your sauce very thin and less creamy - I do not recommend using any dairy other than heavy cream for this recipe.
- Parmesan cheese: Pre-shredded cheeses contain anti-clumping powders that when melted, will make your sauce grainy. I do not recommend using pre-shredded cheese.
Quick, easy and delicious.
It’s on our week night rotation.
So glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe, Jayne!