Smoked cod is one of my favourite fish to eat. I didn’t actually realise until a few weeks ago that the yellow colour that fish goes once it’s been smoked has nothing to do with the smoking process – it’ actually colouring that’s added. Who’d have know!
Laura and I tend to eat smoked cod at least once a month. It’s cheap and really versatile to cook with. It goes great in fish pies, with pasta or breaded with chips.
Within this recipe you can use any kind of pasta really. I prefer fusilli but you could swap this for whatever is in the cupboard really.
Ingredients
- 250g smoked cod loin
- 110g dried fusilli pasta
- 30g pumpkin seeds
- 30g pine nuts
- 5x asparagus tips (cut into quarters)
- 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
- 50g wild mushrooms (sliced)
- 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped or grated)
- 1/2 red chilli (sliced)
- 6 vine tomatoes
- Handful fresh basil (torn)
- 1 enchalion shallot (finely chopped)
- 100g vegetarian cheddar (grated)
Method
- Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius / 392 degrees Fahrenheit / Gas mark 5.
- Boil the pasta in a deep saucepan full of salted water for between 8-12 minutes (check the pack instructions for exact cooking time).
- Place a frying pan on a medium/high heat and add a glug of olive oil. Once the oil has heated up, add in the shallot, garlic, chilli and vine tomatoes, then cover the pan and leave for 5 minutes.
- Remove the lid and add the pumpkin seeds and pine nuts then turn the heat down slightly. Leave to fry for another minute.
- Add the cod loin (whole) to the pan and season well with salt/pepper. Then pour over half the tin of chopped tomatoes and add the asparagus and basil. Cover the pan and leave for 4 minutes.
- The cod will have softened now so use the back of a wooden spoon to flake apart the cod into smaller chunks (this is much easier than chopping the cod before-hand). Mix everything together well and add in to a deep oven-proof dish (a casserole dish will be perfect). Also, drain off the pasta and rinse with cold water then add it to the oven-proof dish. Finally, scatter the grated cheese over the top and place within the oven with the lid off for 20 minutes.
- Take out the dish and leave to cool for a minute before serving up.
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