Crème Fraiche Pasta. A delicious one pot pasta bake cooked in the slow cooker. Comprising of salmon fillets, pasta, and the best creamy crème fraiche pasta sauce.
This creamy salmon pasta bake is perfect for busy weeknights when you want something simple yet tasty that you can dump into your slow cooker.
Salmon Crème Fraiche Pasta
I credit two things for learning how to cook. My wonderful chef husband Dominic, that always had loads of patience with me in the kitchen and binge watching Jamie Oliver.
I would watch Jamie Oliver and every time he would introduce me to yet another ingredient, that had passed me by, and would make such a big difference in the kitchen.
One of those Jamie Oliver hacks was crème fraiche.
I could use it as a base for a pasta sauce and it would make that pasta taste like something out of a top restaurant.
Even better, it is one of those simple ingredients that you can also use in your pasta bakes in the slow cooker.
Today I wanted to show you how to make a slow cooker salmon crème fraiche pasta. What is so amazing about it, is that everything happens in the slow cooker.
Forget a separate pan for pasta and a separate pan for making your sauce.
Can You Cook Pasta In The Slow Cooker?
Yes, you can. You dump the ingredients into the slow cooker and then the pasta bakes slowly in the slow cooker.
Though you need to make sure you have added enough liquid, or the pasta will be starved of liquid and will be dry and not taste very nice. But don’t worry we will be sharing with you our liquid formula in this recipe today.
Do You Cook Pasta Before Making Pasta Bake?
No, you don’t. Everything happens in the slow cooker and there is no need to boil the pasta first.
Ingredients are dumped into the slow cooker and milk is used to cook the pasta and stop it from drying out.
Use Up Crème Fraiche
Even though I usually make a fish pasta bake with crème fraiche and buy it in, this recipe is also fantastic to use up crème fraiche.
Next time you want ideas of what to make with crème fraiche then this recipe is your solution.
You can also use crème fraiche as a replacement in recipes that call for double cream too.
Salmon Pasta Bake On Slimming World
However, if you follow Slimming World and don’t want to waste syns on crème fraiche then you can swap it for fromage frais.
I am a HUGE fan of fromage frais and use it in a LOT of my recipes and it works well as a crème fraiche replacement.
Salmon Crème Fraiche Ingredients
Salmon – I used two salmon fillets from the freezer that I had completely thawed before slow cooking. You can also use leftover salmon too. Plus, see my notes below for if you want to make this with canned salmon.
Liquid – You want a creamy sauce, and the liquid is an important part of it. I recommend milk and white wine to cook the pasta in. This will ensure the pasta is fully cooked.
Cream – Then once the pasta is fully cooked, I recommend adding in crème fraiche and Philadelphia cream cheese. These two creamy ingredients will make all the difference.
Seasoning – I love my salmon fillet pasta paired with garlic and oregano. As well as some salt and pepper. Quite often it’s the simple ingredients that make all the difference.
Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this salmon pasta recipe, it has just been our Crockpot. We have this one and its wonderful for one pot family dinners. Plus, we can use it on the stovetop and in the oven too. Making it ideal for sauteing and making things crispy.
Canned Salmon Crème Fraiche Pasta
Don’t want to spend money on salmon fillets and have canned salmon in your pantry? Well, you will be pleased to know you can also make canned salmon pasta.
Simply make the pasta as usual, then instead of adding salmon to the pasta, leave it until last and stir in drained cans of salmon instead.
How To Cook Salmon & Crème Fraiche Pasta?
- Dump. Load into the slow cooker your pasta, white wine, milk, and seasonings. Stir well.
- Fillets – Load your salmon fillets on top of your pasta and this will ensure that the salmon cooks with the pasta and sinks into the pasta.
- Shred. After slow cooking remove the salmon and shred, add in crème fraiche and cream cheese and stir everything together.
What To Serve With Your Salmon Pasta?
My favourite thing ever to serve with my crème fraiche pasta is air fryer garlic bread. Pasta and garlic bread go so well together and because of the carbs everyone will be full for hours. This also means that you can keep the portion sizes down and feed more people.
Though, if there are two of you, then you can just have the salmon pasta and keep it simple and not bother with any sides.
More Easy Slow Cooker Favourites
Slow Cooker Salmon Crème Fraiche Pasta
Ingredients
Kitchen Gadgets:
Salmon Crème Fraiche Pasta Ingredients:
- 500 g Dried Pasta
- 1 Litre Skimmed Milk
- 240 ml White Wine
- 300 g Garlic & Herb Philadelphia
- 2 Salmon Fillets
- 1 Tsp Garlic Puree
- 1 Tbp Oregano
- Salt & Pepper
Add Later:
- 600 g Crème Fraiche
- 100 ml White Wine
- 300 g Cream Cheese
- 240 ml Skimmed Milk
Instructions
- Load all the first ingredients (apart from the salmon) into the slow cooker and give it a stir.
- Then place the salmon fillets on top of the pasta.
- Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook for 3 hours on low. Remove the salmon, stir, then place the salmon back on top and cook for a further hour.
- Shred the salmon, add it to the slow cooker and stir in the crème fraiche, white wine, skimmed milk, and cream cheese and then serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!
You cannot beat a creamy pasta, this was lovely and my whole family loved it, will be making again in the autumn, thanks.
Lovely salmon pasta, a great recipe thanks.
As a single man, I bought an air fryer that I thought would be of a size that I would use with no waste/overuse of ingredients(2.2 Litres)
I subscribed to your email course to find out the nitty gritty bits about air frying, but soon realised that most if not all your tips are for family sized fryers. I wouldn’t have thought that I am the only single pensioner who finds that there are no or next to no tips/recipes for the smaller version of fryer. Are there any tips/recipes that you might be able to pass on for small fryers without having to divide ingredients/timings by 4
Thanks G
Hi Graham,
You are correct there is alot of people like yourself and we are looking into getting a smaller air fryer so we can give it a try and see any differences in cooking times.
On all recipes where it says the amount of people the recipe is for if you hover over the number a slide bar pops up and you can slide it down to one and the ingredients amount automatically change for you 🙂
Give it a try and see if that can work for you.
Thank you Graham.