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More Hearty Pasta
Smoked Haddock Pasta Bake
Smoked haddock and gruyere pasta bake is one of those dishes I turn to when I want something a little indulgent and very comforting. The smoked fish adds a savoury depth that works beautifully with the nutty richness of gruyere, all stirred through tender pasta and baked until bubbling and golden. It’s creamy, full of flavour, and perfect for cold nights or feeding a hungry crowd. I always make extra – the leftovers are somehow even better the next day.
Ingredients
- 350g smoked haddock
- 200g conchiglie pasta
- 30g salted butter
- 30g plain flour
- 500ml milk
- 1/2 onion, skin removed
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 tsp dijon mustard
- 100g gruyere cheese, grated
- Nutmeg
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Place the haddock fillets onto a lightly greased sheet of foil. Fold over the foil to create a punch, fully enclosing the fish fillets.
- Transfer to oven and bake for 15-18 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool.
- Once cool, use a fork to break up the fish fillets, and discard any skin.
- Whilst the fish bakes: Cook the pasta according to packet instructions, minus 2 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- In a small pot, heat together the milk, onion, garlic cloves and bay leaves over low heat for 15-20 minutes.
- In a larger pot, melt the butter over medium heat until sizzling. Add the flour, and stir through until well combined. Cook 1-2 minutes, or until the mixture has darkened in colour slightly to a golden coloured roux.
- Next, strain the milk into the roux, and discard the onion, garlic and bay leaves. Stir continuously for 5 minutes, or until the sauce is thick and creamy.
- Add the dijon mustard, 50g of the gruyere cheese, and season with nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.
- Once the sauce is smooth and creamy, and the cheese has melted, stir through the fish and pasta.
- Transfer to an oven-proof dish, and sprinkle with the remaining gruyere cheese.
- Bake in the hot oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is golden.
What I Cook With
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Amount Per Serving: Calories: 532Total Fat: 18.7gSaturated Fat: 10.3gCholesterol: 122mgSodium: 867mgCarbohydrates: 52.1gFiber: 1.5gSugar: 6.5gProtein: 38.5g
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Smoked Haddock & Gruyere Pasta Bake
From Paris with Love (and Cheese)
The idea for this smoked haddock & gruyere pasta bake came to me while flicking through one of my absolute favourite cookbooks, The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo. I’ve loved this book for years, and while I wasn’t looking for anything specific, I stumbled across her recipe for Gratin au Poisson Fumé and instantly knew it was going to be dinner. Now, her recipe is more of a smoky potato bake, but I had a strong feeling it would translate beautifully into a pasta dish. And let me tell you – it really did. A few tweaks here and there, a change of ingredients, and suddenly I had the richest, most comforting pasta bake I’ve made in a long while.
This isn’t just any pasta bake. It’s creamy, indulgent, salty from the smoked fish, sharp and nutty from the gruyere, and exactly what you need on a cold winter night. It’s what I like to call my French comfort food with an Aussie practicality twist. I know smoked haddock can be a bit divisive, but here it becomes something quite magical. The flavours mellow out in the cream sauce and pair so well with the cheese that even the most hesitant fish eater might be convinced to dive in.
I didn’t grow up loving creamy fish pastas. My mum used to make salmon mornay with soy milk and tinned fish, and unbeknownst to us all at the time, I was allergic to soy and suspicious of anything in a can. So it put me off the whole concept for years. But then, on a city break to Paris, I tried the most incredible creamy salmon fettuccine in a cosy bistro and it totally changed my mind. This pasta bake channels that moment. It’s nostalgic, a little posh, and completely delicious.
The Comfort Food We All Deserve
There’s something about a pasta bake that just feels like a warm hug, isn’t there? Especially one with creamy sauce, stringy melted cheese, and those crispy golden bits around the edge of the dish that you fight someone for. I love how adaptable pasta bakes are, and this one ticks every box – it’s hearty, flavour-packed, and a little bit fancy without being fussy. The smoked haddock adds a rich depth that makes the whole thing feel like a dish you’d order at a French bistro, while the gruyere adds just the right amount of decadence.
If you’ve got memories of gloopy tinned fish casseroles that haunt your childhood (hi, it’s me), this dish is the antidote. Everything is elevated by using fresh ingredients and paying attention to balance. The creaminess is cut with a little sharpness from the cheese, and the smokiness of the haddock doesn’t overpower the dish – it just sits quietly in the background, doing all the right things.
Honestly, this is the kind of meal I’d serve if I had friends over in the middle of July, huddled around the table with wine and thick socks. It’s the pasta version of putting on your comfiest jumper and not leaving the house all weekend. And we all need a bit of that sometimes.
A French Classic Gets the Bry Treatment
What I love about taking inspiration from other cuisines is that I get to honour a recipe while still making it suit my tastes and what I have on hand. Rachel Khoo’s gratin was so elegant and classic, but I’m not going to pretend I always have the right potatoes in the cupboard. What I do always have is pasta. So naturally, I went where my heart led me. Plus, pasta is faster, and we all know I like to keep things low-effort with high reward.
The smoked haddock & gruyere pasta bake is a dish that feels celebratory but achievable. I didn’t want to overcomplicate it, so it’s more about letting the ingredients speak for themselves than doing anything too cheffy. The haddock is poached gently, flaked into the sauce, and then stirred through the pasta. And the sauce – oh, the sauce. It’s velvety and rich without being too heavy, with just the right amount of gruyere melted through to give you that glorious, cheese-pull situation when you serve it up.
I know we’re all a bit tired, and sometimes dinner feels like another job, but trust me on this one. This dish will reward you tenfold. Leftovers reheat beautifully, though you might want to add a little splash of cream or milk to loosen it up. And if you don’t have gruyere, a good vintage cheddar or even comté will do just fine. Make it yours.
Ingredients Breakdown
For this pasta bake, you’ll need pasta – short shapes work best for holding onto all that creamy goodness. Smoked haddock is the hero protein here, and I highly recommend using fresh fillets if you can get your hands on them. It makes a huge difference to the final flavour. Gruyere is the cheese of choice, and its nutty, slightly sweet taste complements the smokiness of the fish beautifully.
You’ll also need milk for the base of the sauce – nothing too fancy, just good ol’ normal milk does the job. A touch of Dijon mustard adds subtle warmth and zing, while a pinch of nutmeg brings a bit of that old-school comfort food charm. Salt and pepper, of course, to taste. If you’re feeling fancy, you could top the whole thing with a scattering of breadcrumbs mixed with a bit of melted butter for extra crunch.
All in all, the ingredients are simple, but together they create something much more than the sum of their parts. And really, isn’t that what good comfort food is all about?
