Shell pasta with salmon, spinach and fennel

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 4 onions, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 400 ml vegetable stock
• 400 g cream
• 200 g shell pasta, cooked in salted water until al dente
• Salt
• pepper
• 400 g fennel
• 400 g leaf spinach, briefly blanched, well squeezed
• 400 g salmon fillet(s), skinned, boned, cut into approx. 2 cm cubes
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp lemon zest, grated
• 200 g Gruyère, coarsely grated

Instructions

Working time approx. 40 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 45 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 25 minutes

Sauté the diced onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent. Add the tomato paste, sauté briefly, deglaze with the stock and cream, reduce for 7 minutes, and season to taste. Set the fennel greens aside, cut the bulbs lengthwise into strips, blanch them in salted water for 3 minutes, and drain well. Mix the salmon cubes with the lemon juice and zest, salt, pepper, and spinach. Pour half of the sauce into a large baking dish. Arrange the fennel on top. Fill the pasta shells with the spinach and salmon mixture and place them on top of the fennel. Spread the other half of the sauce over the pasta shells and sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for 30 minutes. Serve sprinkled with the coarsely chopped fennel greens.