Dijon-dill salmon with crushed potatoes
Roasted salmon, crushed new potatoes and a cool dill sauce.
About 35 min · 495 kcal · 37 g protein per serving
Sardine, lemon and parsley spaghetti
Spaghetti with sardines, parsley and a light lemon finish.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 12 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm the tomatoes collapse in 4 to 5 minutes
- Photograph the finished plate
- Time
- About 20 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 450 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 31 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains fish, gluten. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- spaghetti. Most dry pasta is just wheat and water, but some contains egg; check the packet.
- tinned sardines. Sardine tins vary: in oil, in brine or in tomato sauce, each with different salt and fat. The figure here is for sardines in oil, drained.
Cooking steps
Cook the spaghetti in boiling water, following the packet. Before draining, keep back a mugful of the cooking water.
Meanwhile, warm the oil in a wide pan over medium-low heat and cook the garlic for a minute, until it smells sweet but has not coloured.
Add the tomatoes and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, pressing them with a spoon, until they collapse.
Add the sardines in large pieces and turn them through gently, so some stay whole.
Add the drained spaghetti, the lemon juice and the parsley, and loosen with a few spoonfuls of the cooking water until the sauce coats the strands.
The useful detail
Keep some sardine pieces intact rather than breaking them all into the sauce. Stirred hard they disappear into a paste; folded through at the end you get whole pieces as well as flavour.
Make it work for you
One serving is Half the pan: 60 g of spaghetti (dry weight) with half the sardines. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Tinned mackerel instead of sardines
Larger, meatier flakes.
Per serving: about 50 kcal more, about 1 g less protein, about 6 g more fat.
Tinned tuna
Much drier and milder, and lower in fat. Add an extra spoonful of the cooking water.
Per serving: about 110 kcal less, about 5 g less protein, about 9 g less fat.
Gluten-free pasta
Works; nutrition is not recalculated.
Allergens: Removes gluten.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
An oily-fish pasta. The sardines carry the protein and the fat, and there is no cheese or cream in the pan.
| Energy | 450 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 31 g |
| Fat | 14 g |
| of which saturates | 2 g |
| Carbohydrate | 49 g |
| of which sugars | 4 g |
| Fibre | 3 g |
| Sodium | 290 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| spaghetti | 120 g | FDC 169736Pasta, dry, enrichedFoodData Central records dry pasta as one entry rather than by shape. | 445 kcal | 15.6 g |
| olive oil | 4.5 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 40 kcal | 0.0 g |
| garlic | 5 g | FDC 169230Garlic, raw | 7 kcal | 0.3 g |
| tomatoes | 150 g | FDC 170457Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, year round average | 27 kcal | 1.3 g |
| tinned sardines | 180 g | FDC 175139Fish, sardine, Atlantic, canned in oil, drained solids with bone | 374 kcal | 44.3 g |
| lemon juice | 10 g | FDC 167747Lemon juice, raw | 2 kcal | 0.0 g |
| parsley | 5 g | FDC 170416Parsley, fresh | 2 kcal | 0.1 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 898 kcal | 61.8 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking. Eat within 3 to 4 days. The pasta absorbs the sauce overnight; loosen it with water when reheating.
- In the freezer
- The FDA chart gives cooked fish 4 to 6 months in the freezer for best quality.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
Try another recipe
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Baked crab cakes with courgette and a lemon yoghurt dip.
About 45 min · 370 kcal · 32 g protein per serving