The greatest cottage pie recipe

Endlessly versatile and comfortingly familiar, potatoes are at the heart of so many favourite dishes — which perhaps explains how we each get through more than 130kg of them every year.

The humble Maris Piper turns to mash very well — and is widely available — but if you want to up the ante, do as chef Gordon Ramsay does, and get your hands on some Yukon Gold potatoes.

Cottage pie

Ingredients

1kg short ribs, bone in

1 onion, diced

2 carrots, diced

2 celery stalks, diced

3 cloves garlic, grated

2 tbspn tomato purée

1 tbspn plain flour

200ml red wine

500ml beef stock

2 sprigs thyme

2 bay leaves

1 tbspn Worcestershire sauce

For the mushroom layer

250g wild mushrooms, chopped

2 cloves garlic, grated

3 sprigs thyme

50ml double cream

For the Parmesan mash

1.5kg potatoes, such as Maris Piper

150ml double cream

100g unsalted butter

75g grated Parmesan

1 tspn Dijon mustard

100g Gruyère cheese

Fresh thyme to decorate

Method

Preheat your oven to 160˚C fan/180˚C/350˚F/gas mark 4.

Heat a splash of olive oil in a large casserole dish with a lid. Brown the short ribs on all sides and set aside. To the same dish add the diced onion, carrots and celery. Cook until softened, then stir in the garlic and tomato paste and cook for another couple of minutes. Sprinkle over the flour, mix it in, then deglaze the dish with the red wine, scraping up any browned bits, and simmer to reduce the wine by half.

Return the beef to the pan, add the beef stock, thyme, bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce and season well. Cover the dish and place it in your oven to braise for 2½ –3 hours or until the beef is tender and falling off the bone. Remove the beef from the dish, shred it finely, and discard any bones. Return the shredded meat to the dish and stir it back into the thickened sauce.

Fry the mushrooms in a splash of olive oil over a medium heat for about five minutes, so they release their liquid, then stir in the garlic and thyme. Season well and stir in the cream. Set aside.

Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender. Drain and pass through a potato ricer or mash until smooth. Warm the cream and butter in a small saucepan, then mix into the mashed potato and stir through the Parmesan and Dijon mustard, and season to taste.

Preheat your oven to 200˚C fan/220˚C/425˚F/gas mark 7.

Spoon the beef mixture into a large baking dish and level it. Add the wild-mushroom layer on top of the beef, followed by the mashed potatoes, smoothing the surface with a spatula or use a fork to create ridges. Sprinkle the top with the Gruyère and bake for 25–30 minutes or until the top is golden and bubbling.

Remove the pie from the oven and decorate with thyme sprigs. Serve hot with steamed greens on the side.