Baked Pesto salmon with gemelli pasta is an easy dinner that's also delicious served cold for lunch the next day.
This recipe for salmon with gemelli pasta combines three ingredients my family loves - pesto, salmon and pasta - into one easy dinner.
What Makes This Recipe Flavorful & Easy?
- Pesto is swirled into mayonnaise to create an easy, creamy dressing
- The pesto mayonnaise dresses the pasta AND is brushed on the salmon for an extra boost of flavor and moisture as it cooks.
- This pasta is great served cold. You can make it earlier in the day and just pull dinner out of the fridge in the evening, or truly enjoy leftovers the next day.
(And just so you know, pesto mayonnaise is delish spread on a sandwich for lunch!)
What is Gemelli Pasta?
Gemelli pasta is a noodle shaped like a thin, short twist. The braided texture helps sauce, like pesto, cling to the noodles.
Any type of noodle shape will do in this recipe, although twisty gemelli is a fun one to try. I bought the gemelli pasta I used at Costco. It's the Garofalo organic gemelli.
How to Cook Gemelli Pasta
Cook gemelli pasta in boiling, salted water like any other type of pasta. The cooking time depends on the brand, but is often around 12 minutes.
Pesto Mayonnaise
The pesto mayo in this recipe is very straightforward and easy - just mix together homemade or store-bought pesto and mayonnaise.
For other recipes, pesto mayonnaise can be made by blending fresh basil leaves, garlic, mayonnaise and a squeeze of lemon juice in a food processor.
Two easy pesto recipes to try at home:
Baked Pesto Salmon
Pesto gives salmon (and other types of fish) rich, garlicky flavor. I usually wait to add a dollop of pesto until the fish is fully cooked, because pesto tends to dry out in the oven and doesn't fully melt into baked salmon. However....
Mayonnaise is a secret ingredient that keeps food moist and tender, thanks to its two main ingredients oil and eggs. That's why it's even added to recipes like Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake.
Spreading mayonnaise on fish before it bakes is a trick I learned from a helpful guy behind the fish counter at the grocery store. Mayo is mostly fat, which keeps the fish moist and also helps herbs, spices and other flavors soak into the fish. Martha Stewart's recipe for Baked Tilapia with Fresh Herbs uses a thin coating of mayo in exactly this way.
I like to combine mayo with pesto, and voila! You get moist, flavorful and perfectly delicious baked pesto salmon.
Other ways you can use mayonnaise for cooking:
- When grilling fish (or chicken), try spreading a light layer of mayo on each side to keep the fish from sticking to the grill.
- Mayo works as well - or better - than oil or butter when browning something in a skillet, whether it's meat, fish or a grilled cheese sandwich.
- Mayo adds fat and flavor to marinades, and will help meat brown nicely when cooked. This chicken marinade with mayo, mustard and garlic is a good one.
- Mayo can prevent sugars in marinades (like honey) from burning on the grill
How to Tell When Salmon is Done
As a general rule, when baking or grilling, cook salmon 10 minutes per 1-inch of salmon, measured by the thickest part of the fillet. To be safe, start checking the salmon after 8 minutes, but don't be surprised if the salmon takes closer to 12 minutes to fully cook (larger, whole fillets will take longer than smaller separate fillets).
When salmon is done, it should flake apart or separate easily with a fork. This is the best indicator that salmon is done.
Cooked salmon should not be raw and translucent in the middle, but if the middle is very light pink and semi-translucent it's a good time to take the salmon out of the oven.
Overcooked salmon is very firm to the touch, dry, and often has a white coating of albumin on it. Albumin is a protein in salmon that comes to the surface as the salmon it cooks.
The higher the heat used to cook salmon, the more likely it is that albumin will appear, especially if the salmon is overcooked. So, cooking salmon at a lower heat (below 400 F) makes it less likely that albumin will appear, but most importantly, don’t overcook the salmon.
More Recipes for Pesto Lovers
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Baked Pesto Salmon with Gemelli Pasta
Baked Pesto salmon with gemelli pasta is an easy dinner that's delicious served warm or cold.
Basil pesto is swirled into mayonnaise to create a creamy dressing for the pasta and to give the salmon and extra boost of flavor and moisture as it cooks. I use gemelli pasta (short, thin spirals) for this recipe, but any type of pasta will work just fine.
This recipe was updated 5/20/2021
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 12
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 to 6 servings 1x
- Category: salmon
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: Italian American
Ingredients
- 8 ounces dried gemelli pasta (or your favorite pasta shape)
- 1 to 2 handfuls baby spinach
- 1.5 pounds salmon
- 1 cup basil pesto (store-bought, or see recipe below)
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise, or more to taste
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Basil Pesto Ingredients
- 1 to 2 garlic cloves
- ¼ cup pine nuts
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 2.5 ounces)
- 2 tablespoons grated Pecorino cheese*
- 4 cups loosely packed basil leaves (3 to 4 ounces)
- ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
*the pesto can be made with only parmesan cheese, but pecorino adds more flavor
Instructions
Basil Pesto Instructions
- In a food processor, finely chop the garlic, pine nuts and grated cheese
- Add the basil
- With the blade running, slowly pour in the olive oil. Continue to process until the pesto reaches a consistency that you like (either slightly chunky or completely smooth). Add salt to taste.
Baked Pesto Salmon & Pasta
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Place the salmon on a baking sheet. Season the salmon lightly with salt.
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions, then drain pasta in a colander.
- Immediately add baby spinach to the drained pasta and toss with tongs so that the heat of the pasta slightly wilts the spinach. Toss the pasta and wilted spinach in a very light coating of olive oil. Set aside to cool.
- Whisk together the pesto, mayonnaise and lemon juice
- Mix HALF of the pesto mayo with the cooled pasta and spinach.
- Spread the remaining pesto mayo over the salmon fillets
- Bake the salmon until it easily flakes apart with a fork (about 10 to 12 minutes)
- Flake the salmon into the pasta and gently toss again.
- Add salt to taste. Add more mayonnaise if you'd like the pasta to be creamier.
Notes
This gemelli pasta with salmon is meant to be served at room temperature or cold, rather than hot. For this reason, the noodles are cooked first then cool slightly while the salmon bakes.
This pesto salmon and pasta is also good chilled, directly from the refrigerator.
Keywords: gemelli pasta, pesto salmon, baked pesto salmon, pesto mayonnaise
Jen
Creamy pesto pasta with flavorful salmon is a delicious pasta salad.
★★★★★