Lemony Smoked Fish & Spinach Linguine

Covid increases the awareness of remote working luckily. As a graphic designer, I was spending so much time on the computer; this was causing not having enough time for shopping or cooking. Eventually, I started to gain weight and eat junk food a lot. To stop this, I searched for an online food ordering service and decided to go with Gousto. I loved their branding and brand messaging, as well as their recipes. Since I’m Turkish and enjoy the Mediterranean diet, their recipes were the closest one to my taste. To keep everything in my archive, I’m writing their recipes in here too for future reference.

Recipe for 2

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lemon
• 5g chives
• 2 x 100g smoked basa fillets
• 190g linguine
• 2 garlic cloves
• 80g baby leaf spinach
• 50g soft cheese
• 15ml chinese rice wine

METHOD

1. Boil a kettle. Add the linguine to a pot of boiled water with a pinch of salt, bring to the boil over a high heat and cook for 8-10 min or until cooked with a slight bite. Once cooked, drain the linguine and reserve a cup of the starchy cooking water.
2. While the linguine is cooking, peel and finely slice (don’t chop!) the garlic. Heat a large, wide-based pan (preferably non-stick) with a generous drizzle of olive oil over a low heat. Once hot, add the sliced garlic and cook for 1 min. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the garlic to infuse with the oil.
3. Chop the smoked basa fillets into small bite-sized pieces
4. Return the pan with the garlic oil to a medium heat. Once hot, add the chopped basa and cook for 3-5 min or until cooked through. Your fish is cooked when it turns opaque and flakes easily.
5. While the basa is cooking, zest ½ lemon Then slice the remaining non-zested lemon into wedges. Chop the chives finely.
6. Once the basa is cooked through, add the Chinese rice wine, soft cheese and 100ml starchy pasta water to the pan and cook for 2 min. Wash and add the spinach and the juice of the zested lemon (reserve the wedges for garnish!). Season very generously with salt and pepper and cook for 1-2min further or until the spinach is wilted and you are left with a loose sauce.
7. Add the drained linguine to the pan and give everything a good mix-up – this is your lemony smoked fish & spinach linguine
8. Serve the lemony smoked fish & spinach linguine in shallow bowls and top with the lemon zest, chopped chives and a generous grind of black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and garnish with a lemon wedge

Enjoy!