Prettaly – Pretty Italy

Oh the memories, oh such comfort food. Love this dish – a classic in my mom’s repertoire up until now. One of the favorite dishes we wish for, when we come home to visit.

There are two ways to prepare the cottage pie – either you prepare everything from scratch or you buy frozen veggies and ready-made mashed potatoes. Surely helpful when you are in a hurry and don’t have time to prepare everything freshly…

See how to prepare here:

Ingredients for 4-6
750-1000g ground beef
½-1 liter gravy (I used a ready-made one)
5 carrots, chopped
1 medium sized broccoli, cut into florets
Alternatively: frozen veggies thawed
2.5kg potatoes (for mashed potatoes), peeled
200ml milk
25g butter
Freshly grated nutmeg
Alternatively: use ready-made mashed potatoes
Salt & pepper

Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (air circulation).
In a pan, fry the ground beef until it crumbles. Add the gravy (alternatively prepare gravy from granules).
Shortly pre-cook the vegetables (I usually steam them) and then add to the mix (alternatively add frozen vegetable thawed).

Meanwhile prepare the mashed potatoes by either steaming or cooking the peeled potatoes (alternatively when in a hurry, use ready-made mashed potatoes) in salty water until tender. Drain well and then mash with the milk and half of the butter and then adding a little of the freshly grated nutmeg.

Pour the beef-veggie-mix into an oven-safe casserole incl. the gravy. Spread the mashed potatoes on top evenly. Place little flakes of the remaining butter on top and cook in the oven for approx. 30 minutes until brown.