Blackened salmon over smokey mozzarella pasta

Name: Blackened salmon over smokey mozzarella pasta
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1/2 lb Bronz cut penne (small penne); 1/2 cup real mayo; 1/4 cups white wine vinnegar; 1/4 cup freshly grate Parmesan or pecorino romano; 2 large garlic cloves pressed; 2 cups packed baby spinach stemmed and fine chopped; 2 small jars of roasted red bell fine chopped; 1/2 lb smoked mozzarella or just pearls since smoked is hard to find; 1 tsp Mexican chili powder or ancho Chile powder (some substitute cayenne); Salt and pepper

Chef Bryce @ChefBryce

Fresh market has this pasta in their deli and I wanted to recreate it. There are a few attempts I found online which I took inspiration from and the end result was incredible. Serve with whatever you like but I found blackened salmon is perfect with it.

Chef Bryce @ChefBryce

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Ingredients

6 servings

1/2 lbBronz cut penne (small penne)
1/2 cupreal mayo
1/4 cupswhite wine vinnegar
1/4 cupfreshly grate Parmesan or pecorino romano
2large garlic cloves pressed
2 cupspacked baby spinach stemmed and fine chopped
2small jars of roasted red bell fine chopped
1/2 lbsmoked mozzarella or just pearls since smoked is hard to find
1 tspMexican chili powder or ancho Chile powder (some substitute cayenne)
Salt and pepper

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Steps

1

Start by salting your boiling water and cook the pasta
2

While the pasta cooks go ahead and add the mayo, vinegar, pecorino, garlic, chile powder, salt and fresh ground pepper to a glass measuring cup and use a stick blender to smooth it out (taste for additional salt or pepper) set aside.
3

Chop up the spinach and roasted red bell and set aside.
4

In a big mixing bowl add the pasta followed by the spinach, roasted red bell, mozzarella and the dressing and stir well. This pasta is best served at room temp so be sure to remove it from the fridge to give it plenty of time to come to temp.
5

If you are cooking salmon for this I use a mix of old bay blackening seasoning because it has this kind of nutmeg flavor and a little zatarains blackening seasoning for its spicyness, but I’ll leave that up to you. Sear salmon in a non stick pan and set on paper towel and blot to remove excess oils., serve over the pasta.