Cover Welcome guests into your home with a comforting pasta dish (Photo: Unsplash/Olga Petnyunene)
Welcome guests into your home with a comforting pasta dish (Photo: Unsplash/Olga Petnyunene)
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Try cooking this garlicky, fragrant pasta salsiccia to impress your friends this Christmas
During the festive season, our calendars seem to be bursting at the seams: filled with reunions between relatives, touching base with visiting friends and reconnecting with those with whom we may have lost touch over the year. When it comes time to entertain, few things feel as special as opening your home to loved ones at Christmas.
Hosting people at home is an intimate and meaningful gesture—inviting someone to take pause from life’s noise and find respite in simple moments with you at your most sacred space. It offers guests a glimpse into who you are: your style, your tastes, your way of welcoming—fully on display.
Above Marielle and Leo Po (Photo: Tatler Archives)
Marielle and Leo Po (Photo: Tatler Archives)
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There is an art to entertaining, and an excitement about preparing to share what’s yours. Some embrace the role with ease, delighting in holiday trimmings, tree decorating, mood-setting scents and the glow of candlelight. Others, pressed for time by packed schedules, find hosting daunting—often scrambling at the last minute to plan a menu. In truth, even when we aren’t entertaining, the simple question of what to cook after a long day of work and Christmas errands can feel just as exhausting.
But fret not, for we interviewed Marielle Po (a seasoned traveller, four-time marathon runner, loving wife and mother) who is a wiz in the kitchen. Known for spectacular, meticulously made meals, this board member of MovEd Foundation has a love and talent for cooking and hosting. As someone who has become well-known for her elegant, flawless dinner parties, we eagerly asked her to share an easy recipe to prepare this holiday season.
Here, she teaches us how to make a comforting salcicca pasta:
See also: Holiday SOS: Sunday Street Co.’s Christmas recipe for an easy yoghurt dip
Pasta salcicca
Above Marielle Po’s pasta salcicca coming together in the pot
Marielle Po’s pasta salcicca coming together in the pot
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Ingredients
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4 Italian sausages. Use fresh-style sausage with a loose, minced pork filling
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1 tin of whole tomatoes
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Tomato purée
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Red wine
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Crème fraîche (double cream may be used as a substitute, though crème fraîche is preferred)
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Olive oil
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Sugar
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Chopped onion
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Minced garlic
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Fresh basil
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Dried chilli flakes
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Salt and freshly ground black pepper
To finish
- Grated Parmesan
- Pasta of choice
See also: Top 10 best Christmas hams in Manila to try this season
Above Marielle Po’s pasta salcicca is delicious and comforting, loaded with garlic and Italian sausages
Marielle Po’s pasta salcicca is delicious and comforting, loaded with garlic and Italian sausages
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Procedure
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Take out the casing of 2 sausages and break them up so they turn into ground meat.
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Slice your 2 remaining sausages into rounds.
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Place olive oil in a pan over medium heat and brown the sliced sausage rounds, then put them aside.
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Use the same pan with the oil and flavour from the sausages to sauté your chopped garlic and onions (add as much as you like, depending on your preference).
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Add in the ground sausage; after it browns, splash red wine into the mix. Deglaze the pan with the red wine, scraping up any caramelised bits from the base. Season with salt and pepper.
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Add in your whole tomatoes. Rinse the tin with a little water to catch any remaining juices and add to the pan, let it simmer, then add a small amount of tomato paste and mix.
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Add a teeny bit of sugar, maybe 1 teaspoon, just to lessen the acidity. Let it simmer for around 5-10 minutes.
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Add back the browned sliced sausages.
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Tear off lots of fresh basil and add it to the pan, along with red pepper flakes.
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Season as needed.
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Add a tablespoon of crème fraîche (if not available, just use whipping cream, but crème fraîche is better), mix, then add lots of grated Parmesan cheese
Above Top off the pasta salsiccia with some freshly grated Parmesan
Top off the pasta salsiccia with some freshly grated Parmesan
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To Serve
- Cook the pasta as instructed on the box. Once al dente, drain and toss the pasta in with a little of the pasta water.
- Toss the pasta through the sauce, loosening with a splash of pasta water if needed.
- Finish with extra Parmesan and fresh basil.
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