Finely chop the onion and crush garlic cloves with a flat knife. If you love a stronger taste of garlic you can finely chop the garlic cloves too.

Place a large skillet pan over a low-medium heat, at extra virgin olive oil, garlic and onions. Stir gently until onions become semi-transparent and garlic becomes fragrant. Be careful to not over cook them.

Cut cherry tomatoes in quarters, add to the pan. Stir and simmer for 2 minutes.

Cut salmon fillet in cubes of about the same size as your cherry tomatoes quarters.

If you don’t have fresh salmon you can use good quality canned salmon as well. And if you like, you can use smoked salmon too. But honestly, I’d prefer it non-smoked, as it has a much lighter flavor and let you feel and enjoy all the ingredients of this special pasta more.

Add salmon cubes to the skillet. At this point, if you have some dry white wine, add a tablespoon. It helps balance the oily salmon to a T. Occasionally stir and let it simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes. If the sauce starts to get too dry add a bit of a cooking liquid from pasta.

In the meantime, bring salted water to boil and cook pasta according to the instructions on the pack. Drain pasta when ready and preserve some cooking liquid.

Add pasta to the skillet pan with a sauce, stir gently, add a bit of a cooking liquid just enough so that it’s not too dry. Simmer for a minute so that pasta absorbs all the flavors of the salmon sauce.

Drizzle with chopped parsley and freshly grated lemon zest.

Serve immediately your beautiful foglie d’ulivo in pasta bowls.