15 Minute Gourmet: Pasta with Ginger Pears and Smoked Salmon

This was one of those “I feel like having pasta, but what to have with it?” inventions.  Then I thought: “Pears!  Pears sautéed with ginger…” and the pears were sliced and sautéed while the pasta cooked.

I first tried pears sautéed with ginger one summer when I bought some pears that were just plain hard.  Though when I cooked those, I added nuts and a drizzle of honey to make them a dessert.  And even though I met mothers in Hungary who fed their kids pasta with chocolate as a main course, I think main course should be salty, and dessert, sweet.

…but what to add to the pears and slivered ginger to make my whole wheat pasta a healthy, nutritious main course?  A little smoked salmon…hmmm.  Bought as a rare treat (am mostly vegetarian, and when I break the diet it is always with fish, and usually salmon!)

So, a single generous slice of smoked salmon, torn into bite-size pieces and tossed with the pasta, the sautéed pears and ginger added, and the pasta tossed again, but still…it needs something.  Some sort of sauce to stick it all together, to give it more a sense of a main dish pasta.

“Ah, a white sauce, yes…”

So I open the fridge to get the butter and milk for the sauce and spy a tub of low-fat Greek-style yogurt hiding  at the back of the fridge.

“Yogurt! Yes!”

A couple generous dollops of yogurt, the mixture tossed some more over a low flame, and served on a warm plate – and you have yourself a very nice dinner!

The whole thing took about 15 minutes, but alas, I still have the dishes to wash!

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