When You're Young in Florence: Sensational Salmon Pantry Pasta
20 min decadent modern pantry pasta packed with protein and omega-3s! It's not traditional Florentine, but I promise there's a steamy little story here
Neither of us had cell phones, so we found the grimy palazzo ‘hotel’ room using the paper maps in our worn Lonely Planet guidebook. The room was very inexpensive and even more so because of the spectacular exchange rate from US dollar to Italian lira. While the albergo did have the most disgusting shared bathroom I’d ever experienced in my 23 years of life, nevermind… because the bedroom had a huge window with functional wooden Italian shutters. We threw them wide open to the city and felt like we were in the budget version of ‘Room With A View’. We were in love and we were in Florence.
After working for 6 months in London consolidating drug testing data for British Rail tube drivers on a student visa, my semi-estranged boyfriend had come to travel Europe on the cheap with me via Eurail train pass. After Paris, Amersterdam, Berlin, and Venice, we beelined to Florence. By the time we arrived in Italy, we were no longer semi-estranged and fully besotted again as these things go. We made out like teenagers at the Giardini di Boboli. Being in love, in May, in Florence, 30 years ago, with no one around at the Boboli Gardens was the stuff of dreams.
Despite the magic, we were having to heavily ration our meager travel savings from our entry level jobs. We’d been tragically tourist-trapped by some terrible pizza in Venice, but in Florence had a recommendation, so we decided to splurge on a real ristorante. I still remember where and what we ate. The place: Acqua al Due. The pasta: farfalle with a salmon cream sauce. It was decadent al dente perfection; a revelation of savory lusciousness with the sweetness of cream and meaty salmon. I now know this pasta had nothing to do with Tuscan cuisine but that doesn’t stain the memory. We were so naive in every sense, pairing our meal with a bottle of Chianti because we were in Tuscany and that was the only wine we knew.
Afterwards, hand-in-hand and tipsy from the wine, we licked pastel gelato in crispy cones while circling the Duomo’s green and pink geometric marble, all sticky lips, kisses, and sweet clichès.
That was 30 years ago. I never returned to Florence.
But one day 15 years later… in a kitchen on the side of mountain above Lake Como, after the surprise of marrying an Italian man and moving to Italy, my new Italian husband whipped up a modern pantry pasta that took my heart and belly back to Florence. That’s the recipe I’ll share with you today.
P.S. Incredibly, I just checked the web and this Acqua al Due restaurant seems to still exist!! Reviewing the menu photos online, I don’t see my salmon pasta and I wonder if it was a special…or I dreamed it. As I’ve humbly written in the past, before I moved to Italy, I knew next to nothing about Italian food culture… or cooking in general. Salmon certainly has nothing to do with the regional cuisine of Florence so I’m a bit embarrassed to even ask, but here goes…
⚜️ Dear friends in Firenze, do you know the Acqua al Due restaurant in Florence, there since 1978. Do you think it’s possible to they had pasta with salmone e panna on the menu in 1994?? ⚜️
Last weekend of the giveaway!
Reminder: this is the last weekend to enter the giveaway!! I’m beyond excited to see who the winner is!! If you haven’t entered yet, there’s still time til Sunday February 2, 2025 at 11:59pm. Details on the giveaway post here or click below!
What’s cream doing in the pantry?
While salmon is not a traditional or local Italian food, this IS prepared by Italians at home, so I’m popping it in my popular pantry pasta series as a ‘modern pantry pasta’!
Now, on to a philosophical pantry question: Do you consider basic long-storage refrigerator items to be “pantry” items? I do, and they are in this pasta:
butter 🧈
smoked salmon 🐟
The third, and maybe surprising pantry staple is shelf-stable cream, or often called panna UHT here in Italy. We always have one of these teeny boxes of pasturized cream on our shelf, just in case. While the texture is a bit thicker than fresh cream, it’s delicious in this recipe - and is absolutely interchangeable with fresh cream in this recipe and was actually how I was introduced to it.
Top tips
Aside from being easy and lusciously delicious, this recipe and I got to be fast friends because it’s phenomenally forgiving and foolproof. Here are ways I’ve tested it and alternatives for what you like and what’s in your kitchen
Fresh vs. shelf-stable cream, or panna? I’ve tested this recipe with both fresh cream and shelf-cream and I would never say no to either way. It’s impossible to eat without a happy ‘mmmmm’ at first bite. Fresh cream is less dense with a little lighter, sweeter taste.
Smoked salmon vs. un-smoked cured salmon? I’ve tested this recipe with both due to a picky eater who likes nothing smoked. Again, both are TOP.
Butter vs. extra virgin olive oil? Both work wonderfully. Butter brings that next level of decadent flavor but it’s subtle. I more often than not make it with EVOO.
Shallot vs. onion? Shallots are a little milder and sweeter, but I often don’t have them on hand, and onion is just as delicious. Make sure to sautee them til they’re floppy and translucent so they meld with the salmon instead of overpowering it.
pst! Scroll to the very bottom to download recipe pdf!
Butterfly Pasta with Salmon Cream Sauce
Farfalle al salmone e panna
FOR 4 PEOPLE
The ingredients
20g butter / 1.5 Tbls butter
1/2 shallot or or white or yellow onion finely chopped
200g cured/smoked salmon cut into thin strips about 3-4cm long
60ml (1/4 cup) white wine (optional)
400g farfalle (butterfly-shaped) or other short pasta like fusilli or casarecci
200g cream (fresh or UHT)
Salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste
The method
1) Fill a big tall pot with water and salt and set on high heat stove burner. Taste the water to make sure it’s salty like the sea (and add more salt if needed).
2) Add the butter to a wide saucepan/skillet on low-medium heat. Heat for a minute until melted, then add finely chopped shallot and sautee, stirring occasionally for 3-5 minutes until floppy and fragrant.
3) Meanwhile chop your salmon into thin strips
4) If using optional wine, add it to the shallots and butter and stir for a minute until alcohol evaporates.
5) Then add add salmon to the pan with butter and shallots. Stir to coat and cook 1 minute. You will notice the salmon turns from dark pink/orange to light pink almost immediately upon contact with the heat.
6) As soon as the water boils, add the farfalle pasta to the water and cook until recommended al dente time on the package
7) Add the cream to the salmon and stir, taste for salt and pepper and add if you like. Turn heat down to lowest setting and cover until pasta finishes cooking.
8) Strain pasta and add directly to salmon cream pan. Stir to coat the pasta
Divide your pasta into pasta bowls and top with fresh dill if you happen to have some
Notes:
Salt: It’s important not to skimp. This salt is flavoring your pasta from the inside.
Pasta: you could use almost any short pasta like fusilli or casarecce.
Cream: Fresh or UHT, see Top Tips section above!
Butter: Prefer to use extra virgin olive oil? Go ahead! It’s also delicious
Salmon: Smoked or cured without smoke, either way.
Buon appetito!
x Lolly
Farfalle with salmone was very 80's just as Vodka pasta was! PS acqua al 2 also opened in San Diego! I lived down the street from the restaurant in the 80's! just near Vivoli's with my boyfriend. He adores farfalle and in the 80's everything had panna!!!
I love the demolition of Italian food history on The Rest is History. Worth a listen for anyone interested in food and history. https://uk-podcasts.co.uk/podcast/the-rest-is-history/484-the-food-that-changed-the-world