Our daughter, Meg, is visiting, and she loves Cottage Pie, which is the beef version of Shepherd’s Pie. We cook it in a large black skillet, and upon looking through the blog for a recipe reminder, we realized we have never shared this recipe and wanted to have it handy. We also doubled the recipe to have leftovers, but you could easily make a half recipe for two people.

Each component of this dish must have loads of flavor for the Orsini family, but we do low sodium and gluten free dishes as much as possible. This dish is gluten free and you control the amount of sodium added. This is a two pot dish—One for the potatoes and one for the pie mixture.

For this dish you will need a 6 quart sauce pan and a 12” iron skillet (10.5” if you are doing half the recipe), and the following ingredients:

8-10 Red Potatoes, cut into 1” cubes

3 T Sour Cream

3 T Dukes Mayo

2 T Butter

2 lbs ground beef (I use one pound of lean and one pound of Wagyu for extra flavor)

1/2 large onion, minced

2 1/2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, green beans and corn or your favorite variety)

2 T Tomato Paste

2 T Corn Starch

2 T GF Worchestershire Sauce

2 cups GF Beef Stock, divided

1 t granulated garlic

1/2 t dried thyme

Sea Salt to taste

Fresh ground Black Pepper to taste

1 C grated sharp cheddar cheese (Optional)

For the mashed potato topping, place diced potatoes in a sauce pan and cover with water. Add 1/2 teaspoon sea salt to the water. Bring to a boil, and cook until they are fork tender. Drain. Mash the potatoes, then add butter, sour cream and mayo. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Set aside. If you have a family recipe for mashed potato’s or if you are dairy free, any mashed potato recipe will work.

In the black skillet over medium heat add the ground beef and stir until it starts to brown. Add diced onion, and continue to cook until the beef is fully cooked and the onion is transparent. Add tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, thyme and 1 cup of beef stock and stir. Simmer for 5-10 minutes. Combine corn starch into remaining 1 cup of beef stock until corn starch is fully dissolved. Add this mixture to beef and vegetable mixture and simmer, stirring until it begins to thicken. Taste the beef and gravy mixture, and add salt and black pepper to taste.

Remove from heat. Use a spatula to even out the top of the beef mixture. Drop spoonfuls of potatoes on top of beef mixture and spread gently with spatula. Top with cheese if desired. Place in 350º oven for about 20 minutes until cheese is melted and beef mixture is bubbly.

This dish will feed five to six as a main dish.

Hope you enjoy our savory take on this traditional dish. Thank you, Megan, for helping preserve this recipe for us for later.

Buon Appetito!

Your Iron Maiden — Black Skillet Cooking

Kim Orsini