This Easy Salmon Spiral Pie is a fun dish with simple ingredients. Easy enough for everyday and pretty enough for entertaining!
If you use pre-rolled puff pastry and Boursin herbed cream cheese most of your work is done! There are a couple of different Boursin flavours out there. I used Garlic and Fine Herbs in one and Shallot and Chives in another.
There are a couple of things to watch for with this recipe. I had to make this recipe 3 times in order to get the crust and the salmon cooked at the same time. It isn't difficult when you know what to do. So you can save yourself some trouble if you read the Chef's Tips! The main points are to preheat your baking sheet, slice the zucchini thinly and roll the zucchini rose loosely.
Chef's Tips for Salmon Spiral Pie
- Use skinless salmon fillets and cut them cross-wise into about 1 ½" wedges. Try to cut them as uniformly as possible.
- You may have to use a rolling pin to make the pre-rolled puff pastry bigger. It should be about 12" round. Get it into a round or oval shape as you can so it will be easier to wrap around the salmon without a lot of overlap of the pastry as it curves around the salmon ring.
- When you place the salmon around the edge if you have a thin tail of a salmon fillet overlap it with the piece before. You want to try to have the thickness of the salmon ring as uniform as possible so it will cook evenly.
- Once you have wrapped the pastry over the ring of salmon fillets you are going to cut through the salmon and pastry raised ring about every 1 ½ - 2 inches. Take each wedge and twist it so the salmon fillet is facing up.
- You are going to slice the zucchini very thinly. A mandolin set on thin works best for this. You are going to cut 2 strips of pastry, each one somewhat thinner than the width of your zucchini slices. "Butter' the 2 strips with Boursin cheese. You will have excess pastry that you can bake up separately buttered with the remaining Boursin, to serve on the side.
- Only overlap the zucchini by a smidge when you are laying the slices out. You are also going to roll the strips up LOOSELY. If the spiral is too tight or the zucchini is too thick the pastry and the center will not cook properly.
- It is essential that you heat up a pizza stone or the baking sheet you are going to bake the pie on for about 30 minutes in order for the bottom crust to cook through. If you don't the bottom pastry will be soggy and underdone.
Wine Pairing
The savoury notes of the herbed cream cheese and the buttery pastry and the richness of the salmon open up a lot of possibilities for pairing. A Traditional Method Dry or Extra Sparkling with nice bread-y or pastry notes would be good. A lightly oaked, buttery Chardonnay would match well with the pastry. A Sauvignon Blanc would complement the herbs in the cream cheese.
A Pinot Noir would be the right weight for red wine fans.
A Rhone blend (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre or GSM) would also be a good weight for this.
Salmon Spiral Pie
Ingredients
- 1 lb salmon fillets cut cross-wise into 1.5" strips
- 1 pkg puff pastry pre-rolled, 2 sheets
- 1 medium zucchini sliced thinly using a mandolin
- 6 oz herbed cream cheese like Boursin Garlic and Fine Herbs of Shallot and Chives
- 6 grape tomatoes optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put a pizza stone of baking sheet in the oven and allow it to heat up for about 30 minutes. Do not skip this step or your bottom crust will be soggy. Substitute baking sheet if pizza stone is not an option.
- Prepare a work surface with a sheet of parchment paper about 14 inches square. Roll puff pastry to about 12" round or square. Position puff pastry on the parchment paper.
- Positions salmon strips about 3 inches inside the edge of the pastry circle. Overlap any thin salmon tips with the strip before to make the salmon ring as uniformly thick as possible all the way around.
- Brush the outer edges of the pastry with water and gently fold the overlap over the salmon ring. Stretch it as necessary to cover all the salmon. Try to avoid any thick 'wrinkles' of pastry.
- Take a very sharp knife and cut through the salmon and pastry every 1 ½". Try to make the cuts as uniform as possible. Take a cut piece and twist it on its side so the salmon is facing up. Repeat all the way around the circle.
- Prick the bottom of the pie plate with a fork in a few places.
- Slice the zucchini into very thin circles. Take the second sheet of puff pastry. Cut 2 strips of pastry slightly less wide than the zucchini circles. Spread the strips with cream cheese and position the zucchini slices along one edge of the strips so they only slightly overlap. The zucchini tops should stick out beyond the other edge of the pastry.
- Start with the first strip and roll it up LOOSELY. Place that roll at the beginning of the second strip and continue to roll loosely.
- Transfer your zucchini rosette to the center of your salmon ring. Gently press the rosette outward to open the zucchini spiral up a bit.
- Place a grape tomato in the center of the zucchini spiral and a few around one ring of the spiral. (Optional)
- Take the hot stone out of your preheated oven and carefully slide the parchment paper with the salmon spiral on to the stone.
- Bake 30 minutes at 375 degrees. Pastry should be golden brown and cheese melted through.
- You will have puff pastry and cream cheese left over. Spread the extra puff pastry with remaining Boursin and baked it till crisp (about 12-15 minutes). Serve wedges of it on the side with your Salmon Spiral Pie.
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