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A thoughtful blend of original ‪‎photography‬, ‪haiku‬ and ‪calligraphy‬; a cathartic journey upon fluid images and simple words.

18 Feb 2011

Green, Magenta and a wicked screen

Citrusy-hot linguine on a bed of garlicky spinach served with seared salmon bits and garnished with crispy citrus zests

Lately I have been eating quite light meals, trying to avoid meat when I can. This is quite hard when I keep on dreaming of juicy, steaky beef cooked in tomato sauce with vegetables like a ragú would. I would so gladly live on beef or pork products cooked in tomato sauce with celery, carrots, onions, garlic, white wine and potatoes, wouldn’t you?
Fish is my meaty outlet; few days ago it was the turn of salmon, but how to cook it?

As it is usual I had to wait for the hunger to show up before I could conjure a recipe I would gladly eat for dinner, I actually thought of two recipes one of which was the dessert I posted previously.
The salmon recipe was instead rather simple but it had different components that make it perfect as a complete meal when the ingredients proportions are tweaked to your likings and need.
But what’s about the post title? Well, I have been trying to colour calibrate my monitors with poor results: my second monitor shows my pictures with a very acid kind of green and overly saturated colours (though movies look ok, weird); my laptop monitor instead tend to make things look more magenta, at least this seems to me.
It is quite rare to be faced with absolutes things like colours, there aren't many absolutes in our life. Naturally you might say: "Colours in photographs as in art are quite relative to the artist perception", yes you are right but food photography is a different beast; while we can play with light as much as we wish, colours still need to be realistic (especially when photos are accompanied by a recipe).
So now it is your turn to give me a hand, how do you find the pictures in this post colour-balance wise?
Without further doubts, here I give my:

Citrusy-hot linguine on a bed of garlicky spinach served with seared salmon bits and garnished with crispy citrus zests


Citrusy-hot linguine on a bed of garlicky spinach served with seared salmon bits and garnished with crispy citrus zests

Ingredients (make 2 servings):

  • 3tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • Rind of half a lemon and orange, julienned (cut into thin strips)
  • 120g linguine
  • 2 salmon fillets
  • Crushed mixed seeds (sesame, poppy or mix like Linwood’s ones)
  • 300g frozen spinach, thawed
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • Sriracha sauce



Method:
Let's start making the infused oil.
In a small saucepan warm up the 3tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil and add to it the julienned citrus zests. Let the zest fry till crispy over medium fire then remove the saucepan from the heat and let the oil infuse while you prepare the rest of the recipe.
Put the water for the pasta to boil and then cook the linguine as described on the package.
Toss the salmon with the crushed seeds and sear them on both sides on a very hot skillet.
Drain the spinach from their water and then sauté them in a pan with some extra vergin olive oil and the garlic cloves. Set them aside in a warm place.
When the pasta is almost ready, warm up the infused citrus oil and then toss the pasta with it reserving the crispy zests for garnishing.
Divide the spinach on hot serving plates, top with the linguine, drizzle them with a little sriracha sauce and garnish with the crispy citrus zests. Place the seared salmon fillets aside the pasta and serve.


On alternative: cut the fillets in cubes before tossing them with the crushed seeds and serve some of them over the linguine.


Citrusy-hot linguine on a bed of garlicky spinach served with seared salmon bits and garnished with crispy citrus zests

8 comments:

  1. Love it, Alessio! Salmon doesn't swim on my local coast so I'll need to make a substitution. Mahi-Mahi, mackerel, or perhaps grouper would work here, I think (?). I've got the other ingredients, including fresh spinach and oranges in my garden now.

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  2. @Barbara @ Modern Comfort Food Why not all of them? a little bit of each and you got a feast instead of a pasta :)

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  3. That looks delicious! Beautiful food, Al.

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  4. WOW! What a delicious combination of flavors. And the colors are perfect.

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  5. wow this looks awesome Thumbs up all the way!

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  6. The presentation is gorgeous!

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  7. What a beautiful dish you've put together! I don't see anything off with the colors. In fact, the snaps are so good that I wish I could grab a bite right out of my computer screen this minute.

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  8. This is the kind of meal I could have everyday! even without the fish. the infused citrus oil sounds fab.

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