Kale and lemon pasta with trout roe
Kale, lemon, trout roe, parsley spaghetti
This is a quick and easy mid-week meal, but also the addition of the trout roe makes it look fancier than it is. You could substitute the roe with anchovies which you can cook along with the garlic and kale if preferred.
I’ll be honest, trout roe is not something that I would normally have in my weekly grocery shop! In fact I don’t think I’d ever even eaten it until recently. I have a friend who works at a Seafood suppliers and to support her company I decided to place an order which included ikura (salmon roe) to make sushi with. When the order arrived I found I had been supplied with trout roe instead. I didn’t want to make a big deal of it with my friend and hence this recipe was born!
As it turns out, not only is it a bit of a striking dish as far as pasta goes, but the roe adds a lovely and not too strong salty fish flavour. It’s just a hint really, though obviously you could add more if you wanted it to be more prominent.
I actually find the ingredient to be careful of is the lemon, if you add too much zest or juice, the lemon can overpower the dish. Add with caution and you can always add more if needed and finish it with a squeeze of lemon or a wedge on the side.
I used spaghetti here but I think it would work just as well with linguine of tagliatelle. You could also substitute the parsley for dill.
Serves 2
Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
Here you can see salmon vs trout roe. Salmon roe (on the left) is larger and has a stronger flavour.
2 cloves garlic, sliced
100g kale, washed and chopped in to bitesize pieces
250g spaghetti (dry weight)
Zest of ½ lemon, juice of ¼ lemon
2 tbsp or about 50ml double cream or crème fraiche
Small handful of chopped parsley
Approx 3 tbsp trout roe
1tbsp olive oil
Method
Heat the oil to a medium to low heat in a pan with a lid, and add the garlic, frying for about 1 minute.
Add the kale, toss it around the pan and then add a couple of spoons of water then place the lid on the pan and let the kale cook for about 8 minutes. Halfway through cooking add the lemon zest.
Cook the pasta per packet instructions.
Hopefully the kale will be cooked shortly before the pasta. Turn off the heat, stir the cream or crème fraiche through the kale along with the lemon juice and chopped parsley.
Drain the pasta, reserving a little bit of pasta water.
Add the pasta to the kale mix and toss so the pasta is well coated in the creamy sauce, if it’s too dry you can add a little of the pasta water.
Plate up the pasta in your serving dish and then spoon little dollops of the trout roe on top.
