Haggis is an amazingly versatile food. While it’s often paired with neeps and tatties, you’ll also find it can be a great addition to many other dishes and the heart of many others!
We wrote down a lot of our ideas for haggis recipes here, with some of our favourites being haggis lasagne, haggis and cheese turnovers, and haggis sausage rolls.
Why a creamy sauce for haggis pasta?
However, one of our favourite recipes is also our whisky sauce. It goes great with a Haggis, Neeps and Tatties Stack and Chicken Balmoral, but it can also be used to make this delicious creamy haggis pasta recipe.
Haggis and whisky sauce are a great and well-established combination, but add some pasta as a base, bacon for saltiness, red onion for sweetness, and optionally, some cherry tomatoes to cut through that creaminess, and you have an amazingly tasty recipe that will definitely impress!
Haggis Macaroni and Cheese is another dish we love (we even have a Haggis and Macaroni Cheese Scotch Pie recipe!), but this is something just a little more elevated.
You could always try haggis pasta with a tomato sauce instead to make it more the replacement for mince in a bolognese, but we think using a creamy sauce makes this a little more of a luxurious dish.
It’s SO easy to make but seems like it would be way more difficult. If you want a dish to impress for a date night or just a bowl of comfort food for a night on the sofa, then this haggis pasta recipe works.
Things You’ll Need to Make Haggis Pasta
- Two large saucepans
- Long lighter for burning off the whisky or long match
Ingredients for Haggis Pasta
Serves 2-3: A large portion for 2 and a smaller portion for 3.
- 250g Haggis – cooked to the packet directions
- 300g of Fresh Pasta – or you can use approximately 150-200g of dried pasta
- 20g Butter
- 5-8 tablespoons of Whisky
- 100ml Vegetable or Chicken Stock
- 200ml Double Cream
- 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 4 Rashers of Streaky Bacon – chopped roughly
- 2 Small Red Onions – thinly sliced
- Handful of cherry tomatoes *optional
Fresh Pasta
We like to use fresh pasta for this recipe! It’s super easy because it cooks in around 4 minutes, so it makes this dish really quick to make. We also think it just tastes better!
If you don’t want to use fresh pasta or can’t access it, then using dried pasta is fine, however. You will need around 150-200g per person.
We use Tagliatelle (similar to Fetticine) and would recommend either, or you can use whatever kind of pasta of your preference.
Whisky
What whisky you use is entirely up to your own preference. We probably wouldn’t opt for the best you have since you’ll be burning off the alcohol when you flambé the whisky!
You can use a peaty whisky for a smokier flavour or something smoother if you’d prefer it.
Our standard whisky sauce recipe uses 3-4 tablespoons of whisky, with an extra added at the end of cooking if you don’t think it tastes “whisky” enough.
We doubled the recipe to have with this pasta, so it should really be 6-8 tablespoons.
Some will think this is far too much, so we’ve dropped it down to 5-8, and you can decide what you think is the right amount for you!
You can always add more after cooking and then simmer on a low heat to burn off some of the alcohol, although this will be less than if you flambé it.
Cherry Tomatoes
Between the haggis and cream, this haggis pasta recipe can be quite rich. The red onion helps to cut through with some sweetness, as does the salty bacon. However, you may also want to add a little acidity with some cherry tomatoes.
We’d suggest slicing these in half and adding them when you add the haggis to the pan so they are also cooked a little.
Your other option is to wait and try the dish and then stir them through if you think you need them.
How to Make Haggis Pasta – Step-by-Step Method
If you’re using dried pasta, start cooking this before you cook the sauce to allow for the extra time.
The sauce
Melt the butter in a pan on a low heat
Add the whisky
Light the whisky with a long lighter and allow it to burn off the alcohol – be careful!
Add the cream, stock, and mustard and stir to combine
Allow it to come to a simmer and thicken
Set aside
The Pasta
Add a little oil to a pan and fry the bacon and onion for 5 minutes or so until the onion is translucent.
If you’re using fresh pasta, cook and drain the pasta according to the package instructions in the meantime.
Add the haggis to the onion and pasta to heat it up to piping hot if it has cooled since you cooked it. Slice the cherry tomatoes and add now if using.
Add the pasta
Add the sauce and fold it all to combine.
Serve with a garnish of chives
Why flambé the whisky?
When you flambé (light and burn off) alcohol for cooking, it burns off some of the alcohol itself but leaves the flavour of the whisky behind.
You could skip this step, but the sauce may have a little more of an alcoholic bite/taste to it.
This recipe uses a fairly large volume of whisky to ensure you get a nice flavour of it, so you need to be careful when you light it as the flame can get quite big. Clear the area of anything that can be reached by a flame, don’t have the heat on too high and be sure to use a long lighter or match and step back.
Yield: 2-3
Creamy Whisky & Haggis Pasta Recipe
Haggis is so much more versatile thank you might think, but you'll soon discover why with the haggis pasta recipe!
One of our favourite recipes is also our whisky sauce. It goes great with a Haggis, Neeps and Tatties Stack and Chicken Balmoral, but it can also be used to make this delicious creamy haggis pasta recipe.
Haggis and whisky sauce are a great and well-established combination, but add some pasta as a base, bacon for saltiness, red onion for sweetness, and optionally, some cherry tomatoes to cut through that creaminess, and you have an amazingly tasty recipe that will definitely impress!
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 250g Haggis - cooked to the packet directions
- 300g of Fresh Pasta - or you can use approximately 150-200g of dried pasta
- 20g Butter
- 5-8 tablespoons of Whisky
- 100ml Vegetable or Chicken Stock
- 200ml Double Cream
- 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 4 Rashers of Streaky Bacon - chopped roughly
- 2 Small Red Onions - thinly sliced
- Handful of cherry tomatoes *optional
Instructions
If you’re using dried pasta, start cooking this before you cook the sauce to allow for the extra time.
The Sauce
- Melt the butter in a pan on a low heat
- Add the whisky
- Light the whisky with a long lighter and allow it to burn off the alcohol - be careful!
- Add the cream, stock, and mustard and stir to combine
- Allow it to come to a simmer and thicken then set aside
The Pasta
- Add a little oil to a pan and fry the bacon and onion for 5 minutes or so until the onion is translucent.
- If you’re using fresh pasta, cook and drain the pasta according to the package instructions in the meantime.
- Add the haggis to the onion and pasta to heat it up to piping hot if it has cooled since you cooked it. Slice the cherry tomatoes and add now if using.
- Add the pasta
- Add the sauce and fold it all to combine.
- Serve with a garnish of chives
Notes
Fresh Pasta
We like to use fresh pasta for this recipe! It's super easy because it cooks in around 4 minutes, so it makes this dish really quick to make. We also think it just tastes better!
If you don't want to use fresh pasta or can't access it, then using dried pasta is fine, however. You will need around 150-200g per person.
We use Tagliatelle (similar to Fetticine) and would recommend either, or you can use whatever kind of pasta of your preference.
Whisky
What whisky you use is entirely up to your own preference. We probably wouldn't opt for the best you have since you'll be burning off the alcohol when you flambé the whisky!
You can use a peaty whisky for a smokier flavour or something smoother if you'd prefer it.
Our standard whisky sauce recipe uses 3-4 tablespoons of whisky, with an extra added at the end of cooking if you don't think it tastes "whisky" enough.
We doubled the recipe to have with this pasta, so it should really be 6-8 tablespoons.
Some will think this is far too much, so we've dropped it down to 5-8, and you can decide what you think is the right amount for you!
You can always add more after cooking and then simmer on a low heat to burn off some of the alcohol, although this will be less than if you flambé it.
When you flambé (light and burn off) alcohol for cooking, it burns off some of the alcohol itself but leaves the flavour of the whisky behind.
You could skip this step, but the sauce may have a little more of an alcoholic bite/taste to it.
This recipe uses a fairly large volume of whisky to ensure you get a nice flavour of it, so you need to be careful when you light it as the flame can get quite big.
Clear the area of anything that can be reached by a flame, don't have the heat on too high and be sure to use a long lighter or match and step back.
Cherry Tomatoes
Between the haggis and cream, this haggis pasta recipe can be quite rich. The red onion helps to cut through with some sweetness, as does the salty bacon. However, you may also want to add a little acidity with some cherry tomatoes.
We'd suggest slicing these in half and adding them when you add the haggis to the pan so they are also cooked a little.
Your other option is to wait and try the dish and then stir them through if you think you need them.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
3 Serving Size:
1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 896Total Fat: 59gSaturated Fat: 32gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 22gCholesterol: 320mgSodium: 1113mgCarbohydrates: 45gFiber: 3gSugar: 8gProtein: 36g
The above values are an indication only and are calculated by a third party
Other Savoury Scottish Dishes
- Easy Haggis Burger Recipe
- Tasty Haggis Bon Bons Recipe
- Vegetarian Haggis Recipe
- How to Make a Haggis, Neeps and Tatties Stack
- Balmoral Chicken Recipe: Chicken Stuffed with Haggis
- Recipes for Haggis: 32 Ideas for Using Haggis
- Whisky Sauce for Haggis
- Traditional Rumbledethumps Recipe
- Simple Irn Bru Glaze Recipe
- Scottish Whisky BBQ Sauce Recipe
- Slow-Cooked Irn Bru Ham (with Irn Bru Glaze)
- Traditional Clapshot Recipe
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