Hearty cottage pie is the ultimate comfort food
When making a casserole for a mom-to-be, the dish should be as hearty as it is rich and comforting. Being pregnant can make you hungry. It also should include the recipient’s favorite ingredients, which in the case of my daughter-in-law, Sara, just happens to be peas. My son, meanwhile, is gluten-free, which means anything with even a speck of wheat is verboten. So when cooking for them recently, I decided to make a pea-filled, mashed potato-topped cottage pie as a happy compromise.
While the tasty meat pies are often associated with Irish cuisine, cottage pie is actually thought to have originated in Scotland sometime in the 18th century as an easy-to-make, frugal peasant food that made the most of leftover meat and whatever vegetables might be at hand. Originally topped with a pastry crust, the recipe changed to include a layer of baked potatoes once the starchy root vegetable was introduced as an affordable, edible crop in the late 1700s.
They soon became popular in Northern England and Ireland, where they were known as shepherd’s pie and made with ground mutton or lamb instead of minced ground beef and beef gravy.
Over time, lamb was used less frequently and ground beef became the filling of choice, but the two names were used interchangeably.
Some versions put mashed potatoes on the bottom of the dish along with the top, or even on the sides of the pan to completely encase the meat. You also can make them with a crust of very thinly sliced potatoes.
Whether you use lamb or ground beef, no meat pie is complete without a tender mix of veggies. I used frozen peas and carrots, but you could also use beans, mushrooms, celery, lentils, tomato or any favorite vegetable. The casserole freezes beautifully once cooled and wrapped in foil or plastic.