Christmas Fettuccine - The Holiday🎄

Name: Christmas Fettuccine - The Holiday🎄
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 20 min
Ingredients: 1/2 cup bacon (diced); 1 tbsp olive oil (optional); 1 medium onion (diced); 1/4 cup cooked chestnuts (chopped); 3 garlic cloves (minced); 1 spring thyme; 2 tbsp fresh parsley (chopped); 6-8 sausages (the meat); 1/4 cup water; 1/4 cup grated cheese; Freshly grated nutmeg; Salt & Black pepper to taste; 250 gm fettuccine pasta (cooked as per the packet); Truffle oil; Fresh parsley (chopped); Black pepper

Christmas Movie Recipe Inspiration #10 with this one pot pasta recipe that is simple to make and so festive. The perfect main course or side dish that takes 20 mins to prepare and cook.

Welcome to my brand new Christmas recipe series where I make foods/recipes from my favourite Christmas movies. We are on the ninth movie recipe with Christmas Fettuccine and The Holiday. If you missed the previous movies, check out them out in my recipes page.

A Little Back Story To Christmas Movies…

Growing up I loved decorating the house in November for Christmas. Once it hit 15th November, my tree and lights were up, I might have taken time to put everything else up as the month progressed but the tree and lights set the mood and the vibes were in full swing. I would put off all the other lights in the house, in the evening and turn on the festive lights. Switch on my favorite Christmas movie and in those days we needed to have CD’s, which I must say I did. Not much has changed since. I get started with my Christmas movies the moment the tree and lights are up. As I’ve grown up, I have noticed the food scenes in these movies with more intent and honestly I love them so much it inspired me to recreate some of these recipes. Hence I am here at the brink of a new series and so excited to share my love for Christmas movies and their food scenes with you.

Christmas Fettuccine and the Holiday?

The holiday has to be a movie I watch at the beginning of the season, I was not debating whether or not to add a recipe from the movie as it doesn’t really have any major food references or scenes. But if there was one recipe from the film that intrigued me and always got me thinking it would have to be the Christmas fettuccine that Kate Winslet generously suggests would cook for Jack Black as a comforting meal. There is no scene to showcase this but in my mind this is what it would look and taste like.

What is Christmas Fettuccine?

Christmas is all about chestnuts, bacon wrapped sausages and yummy pasta. So this recipe is an ode to christmas in pasta form. We have all the common culprits of Christmas with chestnuts, bacon, sausage meat and nutmeg. We keep it fresh with herbs and little cheese goes a long way. However, since it is the season of excess I topped it with a little truffle oil – which is totally optional but so good! A little goes a long long way.

What ingredients do you need to make this Christmas Fettuccine?

To make this pasta we need onions, garlic, cooked chestnuts (I like using the vacuum packed packets if you don’t have access to them you can use chopped walnuts and almonds), fresh parsley and thyme as well. We also need freshly grated nutmeg, black pepper powder to season this pasta. As for the meat I have used lardons, which is bacon that is cut thicker than normal. You can make this with bacon which is more commonly found. If you don’t have bacon use any ham or salami you like, in which case you will need to add more fat like olive oil or butter when making the pasta. I have also used sausage meat, I found these yummy pepper pork sausages (they were the small size ones – not mini) which I removed from the sausage casing and cooked the meat like you would mince. I have used fettuccine here as it say fettuccine in the movie but you can use any pasta you prefer.

The beauty about this recipe is most of the ingredients are customizable to what you have in your fridge. You can swap the bacon for any fatty cold cut meat you have. I used pork sausages but you can use chicken or beef. Make sure to keep an eye not to over cook the sausage meat as it can get too tough. You can use any pasta you like or have. I have used water to deglaze the pan but any stock would be preferred as well as any wine would work too.

What equipment do you need to make this Christmas Fettuccine?

The beauty about this recipe is that we don’t need much to make it. We do need a chopping board and knife to prepare the onions, bacon, chestnuts, parsley. However to cook the pasta we need a stock pot and strainer. To make the “sauce” we need a large saute pan with a spatula. I have also used a pair of tongs to stir this pasta around.

How to make this Christmas Fettuccine?

Cook the fettuccine as per the packet instructions, save one cup of the cooking liquid. Drain the rest and set aside. In a saute pan on medium heat add the bacon and let it cook for 3-5 minutes until it has rendered its fat. If there isn’t much fat on the bacon add little olive oil at this stage. Add the onion, chestnuts and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the sausage meat and using a fork or spatula to break up the meat. Add thyme, minced garlic, fresh parsley and cook for 2 minutes. Deglaze the pan with water and stir around. Once bubbling add the cooked fettuccine, add the cheese, more parsley, nutmeg, salt, pepper, truffle oil (optional) and stir together using tongs. Once combined, adjust the consistency with the cooking pasta liquid if needed. Serve with more parsley and pepper on top.

Serving and storing this Christmas Fettuccine?

I like serving this pasta with white wine, you can us a sparkling here. I would also recommend serving this as a side dish with the rest of your christmas meal. If you are serving git as a main course then pair it with a green salad and you are set. It is the perfect meal for brunch or lunch on christmas day.

Looking for more Christmas movie recipes?

This is the last recipe from this series. I have thoroughly enjoyed making this series and watching my favorite christmas movies alongside. I hope you enjoyed it too, make sure to stay tuned and subscribe to my newsletters to get notified when I post new recipes. Now that we have covered how to make this Christmas Fettuccine from The Holiday, you can have a look at the recipe video on my socials but let’s get to it. Don’t forget to follow along for more fun recipe inspiration.

If you try this recipe out, don’t forget to share it with me on instagram so I can see how it turned out. I’d love nothing more than to chat with you on your cooking/baking.