The TV chef shared his ‘delicious’ pork, apple and pistachio stuffing recipe in a series where he cooked various Christmas sides to level up your festive banquette this year.

Christmas dinner can be stressful as you try to perfect every item that makes up the special banquette – from your chosen meats to sides such as stuffing.

However, to make things a little easier and as tasty as possible, Gordon Ramsay has a few tips and tricks to level up your side dishes in plenty time for December 25.

The TV chef shared a range of dishes in a YouTube video, including the perfect way to cook roast potatoes, how to improve the taste and texture of Brussels sprout and a recipe for his delicious pork, apricot and pistachio stuffing. Gordon described the dish as “full of flavour” as well as easy to do. So, if you want to give it a go this festive season, here is everything you need to know.

“Pork, apricot and pistachio stuffing is a great way to get ahead. It’s easy to do, looks a million dollars and tastes absolutely delicious.”

The chef explains that for him, Christmas is not just about piling your plate high. Instead it is “less is more” as he explains he would rather “have five or six things on a plate that tastes absolutely delicious, than 10 items tasting average”.

With this in mind, the chef went on to share exactly how to make his stuffing.

“First, add pork mince to the bowl, season with salt and pepper and mix.

“Take your grater and an apple. Just get the grater and grate the apple in there.”

Usually stuffing is cooked in the turkey. However, Gordon says that he prefers to do his separately in order to make it can be made in advance to get the flavour and presentation “spot on”.

“Now the nice thing about the apple is it goes brilliantly well with the pork”, Gordon goes on.

“It makes it a little bit sweeter and it also makes it a lot lighter as well which is really important”.

Next up, add a handful of chopped apricots to the mix. This gives the stuffing another fruit note and a lovely texture.

“The apple disintegrates but the apricots stay really ice and intact. A nice little bite”, Gordon explains.

Next, chop up a handful of pistachio nuts. This also help to add a build up of textures to the stuffing as well as flavour and colour. Add the nuts and give the mixture a good stir up before grating in some lemon zest.

“The zest is packed full of intensely flavoured essential oils which gives the stuffing a vibrant citrus zing”, the chef says.

Add in a handful of coarsely chopped parsley to the mix. This gives some freshness as well as a delicate balance of flavours as the parsley “sits beautifully with a turkey”.

Gordon explains that presentation is just as important. He takes a rectangular piece of tinfoil and flattens it out on the worktop before drizzling olive oil on top as well as adding sage leaves.

“Now, sage and pork and apple. That’s the perfect marriage.”

“The sage leaves are used to wrap the stuffing. Start by overlapping them, it’s almost like rolling a cigar but we’re going to roll it in sage leaves.

“Taste is paramount, but presentation is really important too so it’s worth spending a few extra minutes to get this right because it will make the final dish look amazing.”

Add a little seasoning to the sage leaves before taking your sausage meat – around half – and put it onto the plate of leaves. Run your finger along the middle of the stuffing as it is rollout out along the leaves.

Next up, to add even more flavour, take merguez sausage – a traditional North African sausage made from beef or lamb. This will add a little spice into the stuffing.

“All we’re going to do now is take the sausage and lay that in the middle. They are flavoured with harissa, a fiery chilli paste which gives them their heat and distinctive colour.”

If you can’t get hold of merguez, other spicy sausages such as chorizo work well too.

Now take the remainder of the sausage meat you made earlier and sit that on top so it encases the merguez.

“Once you’ve got it like that, lift up the tinfoil, very carefully, and roll that over. Let the tinfoil do the work, roll it nice and tight.