Italian Shepherd's Pie (Sweet Potato Pie)

This is a firm favourite in our house, its lovely comfort food and easily frozen and heated up (great for a family that often has to eat at different times). We call it Italian Shepherd's Pie, although I don't actually use lamb. We also call is "Sweet Potato Pie" but this has to be pronounced with a Texan drawl!

I make a bolognaise base - so you can do this in whichever way you please, either follow your Granny's age old recipe, or like me, use whatever you have in the fridge/cupboard.

For this one I used:
500g Beef mince
1 red onion diced
1 red pepper diced
Handful of button mushrooms sliced
2 x tins of chopped tomatoes
3 x garlic cloves finely chopped
Teaspoon dried basil
Olive oil
3 large sweet potatoes peeled and chopped
Knob of butter (unsalted for under 1s)
Splash of milk
Handful grated cheese

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and brown the mince. Add the onion and garlic for a few minutes. Then add the pepper and mushrooms for another few minutes. Add the tomatoes and dried basil and simmer for 20 mins (ish) - stir occasionally to stop burning.

In the meantime put the sweet potato in a pan of water - bring to the boil and simmer until soft (about 10-15mins). Once cooked, mash with butter and a splash of milk.

Put the cooked mince in an oven proof dish and top with the sweet potato mash.

If you have too much mash, you can always freeze some. I freeze it into 'Millie' portions using a silicone muffin tray (I pop them out and into freezer bags once frozen).

At this point you can put it in the fridge to bake later (I often make it during Millie's afternoon nap so I just need to bake it when it comes to tea time). If you are freezing it, I'd layer it up into a foil dish and freeze that.





Top with cheese and put in the oven for 30 mins (45mins if it's been in the fridge).

Serve with green veg or salad...

Enjoy!

Emily x