Having finally getting settled in New York after moving here 2 months ago, I decided to cook my first real meal.  After a couple hours of flip-flopping back and forth on what to make, and several trips searching through the kitchen, I decided to make a tomato, cucumber, and onion salad along with pan seared Salmon on a bed of angel hair pasta.  One note about this meal: while it’s not that difficult to prepare, you’ll want at least 2-3 hours to prep it to give the salad and marinade plenty of time to rest.

Overall it’s a really great meal, especially if you want something with a lot of flavor but that won't leave you feeling too full or heavy (alternatively, if you do want to feel very full, just add more pasta).  To the flip side, if you don't want the pasta, you can replace its position on the place with the salad and place the salmon on top of that.

One note – there's no measurements for a lot of the spices and marinade ingredients.  That's mainly because this didn't actually come from a recipe but rather just jumping in and figuring out the proportions as I went.  I'm a big fan of making things to taste, so if you haven't tried cooking that way, I highly recommend it.

Tomato, Cucumber, and Onion Salad

Makes 2 servings

½ a Red Onion

2 Plum Tomatoes

1 Cucumber (large)

Parsley

White Wine

Olive Oil

Vinegar

Various Herbs (rosemary, oregano, basil, thyme)

1)      Mix the white wine, olive oil, vinegar, parsley and herbs and whisk in a small bowl – let sit for 30 minutes

2)      Cut the tomato, onion, and cucumber into ½”-1” squares/cubes and toss with the vinaigrette prepared in step 1

3)      Cover the bowl and let the mixture rest in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours

4)      After the mixture has rested, strain most of the excess vinaigrette from the salad and serve in bowls

Angel Hair Pasta

Angel Hair Pasta

Butter

Cilantro

Olive Oil

Garlic

1)      Cook the angel hair pasta to taste (I personally prefer al dente)

2)      Strain the pasta and toss with the butter, cilantro, olive oil and fresh garlic

Pan Seared Salmon with Spanish Marinade

Salmon Fillets

Olive Oil

White Wine

Garlic

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

1)      Wisk the olive oil, white wine, garlic, salt, pepper, and paprika together, to taste

2)      Place the salmon fillets in a Ziploc bag and pour the marinade over them – seal and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.  You'll want to make sure that the entire fillet is covered with the marinade, along with some excess in the bag.  Make sure to squeeze out as much air as possible.

3)      Heat a 10” skillet and coat with butter, once the pan is hot, place the salmon fillets on it (skin side down if they still have skin on them).

4)      Cook the salmon for about 3 minutes, then flip and cook for another 3 (but don’t necessarily trust those numbers, use your eye to judge

5)      Spread the angel hair pasta in a circle on a plate and rest the salmon on top.  Garnish with a touch more cilantro over the plate.

6)      Serve!

Hope you enjoy it!