Christmas pasta

Step 1

Boil the kettle. Use a cookie cutter or a sharp knife to cut the lasagne sheets into fun festive shapes, tearing up the offcuts. Squeeze the sausagemeat out of the skin into little balls. Finely slice the bacon. Peel and finely slice the onion. Pick the sage leaves. Finely grate the Parmesan. Put a 28cm frying pan on a high heat.

Step 3

Once hot, put a little drizzle of olive oil into the pan with the sausage balls and bacon, tossing regularly. Once the sausage and bacon are lightly golden, add the onion and sage, crumble in the chestnuts, and cook for 2 minutes. Scatter the pasta into the pan, then carefully pour in enough boiling kettle water to just cover the pasta – about 300ml. Let it bubble away for 4 minutes, or until the pasta has absorbed most of the water and you’ve got a nice silky sauce, stirring regularly and loosening with an extra splash of water, if needed. Turn the heat off, stir in the Parmesan, and season to perfection. Finish with a fine grating of nutmeg, to taste, and a kiss of extra virgin olive oil, if you like.