If you enjoy carbonara but trying to cut down on bacon, we have a recipe for you! This Quick Smoked Mackerel Pasta recipe is creamy and filling and has plenty of smokiness of the mackerel. Ready in 15 minutes, this is a wonderful weeknight dinner meal, and any leftovers make a great smoked mackerel pasta salad lunch the next day! Simple, inexpensive and easily scalable, this recipe is one of our favourite mackerel recipes!
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Ingredients and Substitutes
Here's what you'll need (quantities and full instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of the post):
- pasta: choose your favourite shape! Don't worry about buying fresh pasta (or making your own pasta) - there is so much flavour in this recipe that a cheap and cheerful dried pasta packet can be justified!
- red onion: substitute with chopped shallot or brown onion.
- lemon: unwaxed juicy lemons.
- sour cream or creme fraiche: either will work just fine. We used sour cream on this occasion, but make sure it's full far, otherwise, it may curdle. Room temperature sour cream will be easier to turn into a smooth sauce.
- vegetable stock cube: adds seasoning to the dish, but don't go overboard, as smoked mackerel is rather salty itself.
- baby spinach: or pea shoots!
- smoked mackerel: more on it below.
- red chilli flakes: adds another colour and a bit of heat to the dish.
- chives: is best substituted with spring onion, but fresh dill or even parsley will go well in this mackerel pasta recipe.
Delicious Additions: In addition to the main ingredients, try adding some finely chopped garlic cloves to the sauce (or a pinch of garlic powder). Some halved cherry tomatoes added together with spinach will also work beautifully. For alternative garnishes, try toasted pine nuts and finely grated parmesan cheese!
The Best Smoked Mackerel For This Pasta Recipe
There are many choices when it comes to buying smoked mackerel in the shops. You can get many flavours, including peppered mackerel, lime and coriander, or even sweet chilli-flavoured fillets. For this recipe, we encourage you to get a simple plain hot smoked mackerel. The smoky saltiness of mackerel fillets will add all the flavour that you will need!
Reader Review
"I love an easy recipe like this! That smokie flavor is so good mixed with pasta! Definitely a must-try!"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Step-By-Step Method
1. Start by cooking the pasta following the packet instructions. It normally takes about 10 minutes to cook in a large pan of salted water.
2. In the meantime, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the chopped onions and sautee them for 5-6 minutes on low-medium heat until softened.
3. Whilst the onions are cooking, remove the skins from your smoked mackerel and tear the flesh it into bite-size flakes.
4. Reduce the heat and add the juice of half a lemon (adding lemon juice at this stage will bring out the beautiful bright colour of red onions).
5. Add the sour cream (or creme fraiche) and stir for a minute.
6. Then crumble in ¼ of a stock cube and, using a ladle, take about 100ml of the cooking water that the pasta is cooking in and add it to the creme fraiche sauce. Stir again. Leave the sauce to simmer on low heat until the pasta is almost ready.
7. 1-2 minutes before you drain the pasta, stir the spinach into the sauce and leave it to wilt.
8. Tip the drained cooked pasta into the sauce and stir to coat. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the flaked mackerel. Taste and add a little sea salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.
9. Garnish the dish with lemon zest and snipped chives. Red pepper flakes will look very pretty as well.
What To Serve Mackerel Pasta With?
This pasta recipe leaves little to be desired so you don't necessarily need any side dishes to make it better, but some healthier vegetable sides are always welcome on our table (garlic bread may be a little too much for this already rich pasta recipe). So if your family and friends are hungry, serve it with:
Recipe FAQs
Leftovers make a wonderful lunch the next day! If your pasta with smoked mackerel is looking a little dry, add a tablespoon of sour cream or mayo and mix it in to create a creamy smoked mackerel pasta salad. Serve it on a bed of fresh spinach for extra nutrition!
We like intricate pasta shapes that hold a lot of sauce, like bow-tie pasta, penne or conchiglie pasta, but long noodle-style pasta will work too. The most important thing is to cook pasta al dente, so adjust the cooking time accordingly. 
Other Quick Pasta Recipes
We all enjoy a quick and easy pasta dish on a weeknight, right? And there's no need to buy any jars of pasta sauce from the shop to have an effortless meal that comes together in under half an hour. Here are some of our favourite easy dinner ideas:
- Prawn Pasta with Herbs From the Garden
- Creamy Chicken and Bacon Pasta
- Green Pasta (Pea & Spinach Pasta)
- Smoked Salmon & Spinach Pasta
- Penne Pesto Pasta (Vegetarian Recipe)
- 15-Minute Red Pesto Pasta With Prawns
- Tagliatelle Pasta with Feta, Broccoli & Fried Lemon
15-Minute Smoked Mackerel Pasta
Ingredients
- 180 g (6.35 oz) pasta
- 1 red onion finely chopped
- ½ lemon zest and juice
- 150 g (⅔ cups) sour cream or creme fraiche
- ¼ vegetable stock cube
- 100 g (3⅓ cups) baby spinach
- 150 g (5.29 oz) smoked mackerel skin discarded
- a pinch of red chilli flakes to garnish
- a few chives to garnish
Instructions
- Cook pasta following the package instructions in a large pan of water.
- In the meantime, heat a drizzle of oil in a large frying pan. Add the chopped onions and sautee them for 5-6 minutes on low-medium heat until softened.
- Reduce the heat and add the juice of half a lemon. Add the sour cream (or creme fraiche) and stir for a minute. Then crumble in ¼ of a stock cube and add about 100ml of the starchy pasta water and stir again. Leave the sauce to simmer on low heat until the pasta is almost ready.
- A couple of minutes before you drain the pasta, stir the spinach into the sauce and leave it to wilt.
- Tip the drained pasta into the sauce and stir to coat. Take the pan off the heat and stir in flakes of the smoked mackerel.
- Garnish the dish with lemon zest, chilli flakes and snipped chives.
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Nutrition
Kerri says
I love an easy recipe like this! That smokie flavor is so good mixed with pasta! Definitely a must-try!
Ieva says
Thanks, Kerri! We are very glad you liked the smokiness of it 🙂
Carrie Robinson says
I just love how quickly I can get this on the dinner table! Perfect for evenings when I am not feeling like cooking, but don't want to order in either. 🙂
Ieva says
Yes, absolutely! These quick recipes are definitely handy to fight off the temptation to order unhealthy take away 🙂
Caitlin says
Such a delicious and easy recipe! Perfect for meal prepping or for a quick lunch.
Ieva says
Thanks! We love a meal that can be used for leftover lunch next day 🙂
Caitlin says
Such a delicious and easy recipe! Perfect for meal prepping or for a quick lunch.
Mirlene says
This sounds like a good dinner to make for my family. Never had mackeral with pasta so I'm looking forward to trying this.
Nathan says
I don't cook with smoked mackerel very often, but it gives this pasta dish such a distinct and delicious flavor! I'll definitely be making this one again!
Ieva says
Thanks! Glad you you liked it 💗
Lea says
Good morning (we are reading you from France!),
your recipe caught out attention, it looks very nice ! We planned to try it for dinner tonight. I personally wondered why you say that plain smoked mackerel is the best version for this recipe. We live in the countryside and unfortunately I just found smoked peppered mackerel at the supermarket nearby. Is it still fine ? Otherwise I also bought smoked haddock (the orange fish you know that tastes very delicate)… what do you think ?
Thank you !
Lea & Peter
Ieva Greber says
Thank you so much — I’m glad the recipe caught your eye 😊
I usually recommend plain smoked mackerel because flavoured versions can easily overpower the rest of the dish, especially the creamy sauce and any fresh elements. That said, peppered smoked mackerel will work absolutely fine here — the pepper tends to stay savoury and shouldn’t throw the balance off too much. The one version I’d avoid for this recipe is sweet chilli smoked mackerel, which I find clashes with the flavours rather than complementing them.
Smoked haddock is lovely, but it will give you a much milder, more delicate result — still tasty, just quite different from the richness of mackerel.
Bon appétit!
Léa says
Thank you so much for your answer 🙂
We finnaly made the recipe with the mackerel. Very good! 👍 And we ate the haddock for lunch in a lovely salad made with fennel, chicory, pomelo, kumquat, pistachios and a citrus and chives vinaigrette. Very good as well ☺️
I'll look at your website forward for cooking inspiration 😉