A fantastic way to include cooked squash into a family favorite is with this butternut squash mac and cheese. Delicious, sweet, and creamy.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Total Time: | 40 mins |
| Servings: | 2 |
Ingredients
- ½ pound asparagus spears, trimmed and bottom thirds thinly peeled
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ¼ cup chopped pecans
- 2 (4 ounce) fillets salmon
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ lemon, halved (juice only)
- ⅓ (8 ounce) package angel hair pasta
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon minced parsley
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ½ lemon, halved (juice only)
Instructions
- Place asparagus spears into a large skillet. Pour enough water to cover the bottom of the skillet about 1/2 inch deep; bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until water has evaporated, about 5 minutes.
- Stir butter and pecans into the skillet with asparagus. Simmer until asparagus begin to brown and pecans are fragrant, about 2 more minutes. Remove from heat.
- Season salmon fillets with salt and black pepper and set aside for about 5 minutes; pat off any excess moisture with paper towels.
- Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Pan-fry salmon fillets in hot oil until browned, flesh flakes easily, and the center of fillets are nearly opaque, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Squeeze 1/2 of a lemon over fillets as they cook.
- Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a boil; stir in angel hair pasta and return to a boil. Cook pasta uncovered, stirring occasionally, until cooked through but still slightly firm, 4 to 5 minutes. Drain well and return to the pot.
- Stir 2 tablespoons butter, parsley, and basil into cooked pasta until coated; sprinkle with salt and black pepper.
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over low heat until melted; stir in Dijon mustard and squeeze remaining lemon half into sauce. Simmer until flavors blend, about 3 minutes.
- Divide angel hair pasta between 2 plates and top each with asparagus and pecans. Place fillets over asparagus. Spoon Dijon dressing over fillets to serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 896 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 33 g |
| Cholesterol | 162 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 6 g |
| Protein | 28 g |
| Saturated Fat | 31 g |
| Sodium | 488 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 76 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Delicious! Baked the salmon, added mushrooms to the asparagus and pecan layer. Doubled the sauce and added a splash of white wine and half and half. Definitely will make again.
Used the original version but added a little wine to the Dijon sauce to make additional sauce.
Delicious! The timing is a bit off, though. I reheated the asparagus & pecans since they were done first. I started the water boiling for the pasta when I put the salmon on to cook, so timing was better there. My Dijon was a little older, so separated in the butter, so I added a pinch or two of rice flour to thicken (could use cornstarch instead). Overall, a great recipe with tasty flavor combos.
Restaurant quality as is!
Absolutely easy and delicious.
I made this dish for a five-person dinner party last weekend. We had to roughly sextuple the recipe (13 fillets, 2 bunches of asparagus, and a pound of spaghetti), but there were NO LEFTOVERS aside from a small bit of pasta. The only change we made was to cook the asparagus for 10 minutes in the butter-pecan mix, and that’s just a soft texture preference. All of the flavors come together perfectly! Thank you for a new twist on an old favorite!
I made this and added enough for one extra person. I had whole wheat thin spaghetti on hand and used that instead of angel hair pasta. We all love pecans so I added extra. We all loved it.
I made this as written, except for substituting broccoli for the asparagus since it was what I had. Delicious even with the substitution and I wouldn’t change anything.
Very good recipe!! I halved most of the recipe, save the sauce so that we’d have more to help flavor the pasta. We really liked it!!! Next time, I’m going to cut back on the butter all around in order to shave some calories. Also, I like to use as much as possible of my ingredients, so I went ahead and added the pulp from my lemon and some lemon zest. Think those were positive additions. Highly recommended! Enjoy!!
We all liked this. I baked the salmon, and ended up having to drain the asparagus because the water did not evaporate well enough, but otherwise was good. I did use less butter overall, and added to the sauce a splash of white wine, a splash of milk, and some parmesan cheese
Yummy. Because I don’t follow directions well and dove right in, I didn’t measure anything. So when taste testing the sauce it was a bit too tangy, to fix my own mistake I improvised and added a splash of white wine, a splash of milk and parmesan cheese, oh my!!! Excellent recipe and my picky eaters approved! Thank you
Loved it, delicious! All the ingredients had to be Mise en place so everything would be ready at once.
I made it in the oven on 425 for 15 min with the butter mustard sauce added already. With the pasta, we did it with fresh parsley and dry basil and a little less butter than what it called for. We sauteed the asparagus with mushrooms in olive oil, garlic, and white wine. Finally, put it all together and it was delicious!
Tasted so so good, but just a little too much butter for my taste. The only thing I would change next time I make it is just reducing the butter in the pasta.
This dish was delicious! I marinated the salmon with salt, pepper, lemon, and truffle oil beforehand. The sauce came out a little thick but it still tasted good. I love this dish! Tasted amazing…
I made the Salmon and Dijon Butter Sauce, and it was very good. I added garlic, onion powder, black pepper, dill, basil, and parsley to the sauce as it simmered. I served it with mashed potatoes, collard greens and okra. This is a quick, simple and delicious meal that I will make again.
The sauce compliments salmon so perfectly!
Make sure you have plenty of butter on hand for this recipe! I was a little confused on which item got which amount of butter but the meal itself turned out great!! Good lemon flavor and the pecans went well with the whole grain angel hair. The dijon butter sauce had good flavor but I must admit that mine didnt hold together very well. Not sure why it kept separating. 🙁
I made this recipe last night. I didn’t use pecans and i used dry spices instead of fresh ones. I used a garlic and herb butter by Land O Lakes to season pasta. I didn’t care for the dijon sauce. Luckily, I had a lemon butter dill sauce for seafood in the pantry. Tasted great!
This was simply divine. The only thing I was missing was the glass of wine. I was concerned that the pasta was going to be too dry, but it wasn’t. The mustard sauce is fantastic. Almost like a mock hollandaise sauce with a mustard flavor. I just wished there was more of it! I would have loved to have drizzled some over the asparagus.
Really good and lemony. Served salmon on a bed of spinach with the pasta on the side. Sauce was plenty for two of us.