MORE PLEASE - TWIXMAS PASTA

Ditali and Savoy Cabbage in Ham Brodo, Roast Duck Pappardelle and Baked Sausage and Scamorza Strozzapreti

The irony of Christmas cooking is that even though I have worked bloody hard at an intricate and long winded meal for many on C-day, I actually feel more inspired to continue to cook in the days following, instead of calling it quits for the year. There are so many great leftovers to play with, no restraints or expectations for meals. I avoid going to the shops and try to use all of the bits floating around the house. I can just potter and experiment with a glass of wine in hand, good music in the background and people I love talking to me as I do. It’s the idyllic kind of cooking that I don’t get to do very much.

Pasta is leftovers godsend, as well as being the easiest thing to cook when you can’t be arsed to think too much. It’s also probably my favourite foodstuff in the world and something my family loves too, so we eat a lot when we are all together. I wanted to share with you 3 great pasta dishes that make the most of potential leftovers, and that are relatively simple without seeming so.

If you, like me are most excited about Ham this Christmas, then Ditali and Savoy Cabbage in Ham Brodo is for you. You can use the stock from boiling the ham, or any kind of stock enriched with the ham bone as the base for a seriously moreish pasta soup.

Then we have Roast Duck Pappardelle which has all the richness and lusciousness of a ragu without actually having to make one. I’m giving you a method to roast the duck legs in full, but if you have duck leftovers you can use them. This is a wonderful way of turning them into a ludicrously easy and elegant pasta sauce.

Finally Baked Sausage and Scamorza Strozzapreti is a gorgeous, rib-sticking pasta for freezing cold nights. It’s perfect for any stray sausages or sausage meat you might have lying around (although, for my veggies, it would be just as nice without them) and is simultaneously creamy, cheesy, tomatoey and spicy ie. the four main flavour groups I look for when I am a bit fragile from festivities.