Italian Shepherd's Pie

When my husband goes out and I have the flat to myself there are certain things I do - play music really loud and sing along (Saw Doctors or Opera mainly), make popcorn, watch cookery programmes, and cook. Tonight, as we have pork mince, I'm going to experiment with making an Italian flavoured Shepherds pie - with a bolognaise/ratatouille mix on the bottom and polenta on the top.

Here's what I'm going to do.... or am doing while also writing this...

Grab a pan and pop oil in and a pinch of salt (I use a mix of olive and sunflower). Add one chopped onion (I used red) and a couple of cloves of garlic. When these are in, add some herbs, fresh or dried - alas I have no garden so I use a dried mix (herbs de provence). Let them cook togther over a slow heat until they are soft. I also added a sprinkle of paprika - more if you want it hot, leave out if not. When soft, add the mince.

And here for a bugbear of mine - mix up the mince, mix and mix and squash it with the spoon so that it cooks in tiny minced up pieces, not worms - worms are soooooo unpleasant to eat, for everyone.

With that, while the mince is cooking dice and smallish courgette and a pepper. When the mince is cooked through, and the juices are starting to come out add the veg. Bear in mind that if you bung it all in in one go it's going to make the pan temp very cold, stir in a handful at a time to keep the pan hot.

Let the veg and the mince cook, until the veg is starting to look soft. Then add a tin of tomatoes and a good few squirts of puree. Mix it up and let it bubble quietly away, while you get on wth the polenta.

Polenta is easy and the recipe is on the back of the packet. Basically, get 850ml water boiling in a pan, measure out 175g of polenta. When the water is bubbling get a whisk and shake in the polenta while whisking - if you're not very coordinated get someone else to shake in the polenta while you whisk. Keep whisking unitl the mixture goes thick and startd to plop. Turn the heat down and stir now and again so it doesn't get lumpy.

Stir some olive oil, black pepper and parmesan (or parmesan-type cheese) into the polenta. Give it a relly good whisk.

Then, pour the mince mix into a baking dish, waggle the dish to spread it out. Then, a spoonful at a time, place the polenta on top. You should be able to put it on in small mounds all over the top, don't worry about spreading it out perfectly. sprinkle some more parmesan on top and pop into a hot oven (200 deg C) for about 20 minutes.

With any luck, the results will be fantastic!

Ant-O-Meter score for this recipe...3 leaves! (Someone's not a fan of polenta!)


Tip's tip: season the indvidual things as you put them in, this way as they cook the seasoning will work on them, and the dish should be nicely seasoned at the end - ie add salt and pepper to the mince when you add it, add sugar and salt to the tinned toms etc.