Traditional Irish Cottage Pie

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Irish shepherd’s pie has a close cousin made with ground beef versus ground lamb, a delicious fare known as Traditional Irish Cottage Pie!

This 45-minute main dish ticks all the boxes that comfort is food known for, including perfectly seasoned ground meat in a hearty beef broth and red wine gravy. It’s also full of a colorful vegetable mixture and topped with creamy mashed potatoes baked until perfectly golden brown.

I have ‘southernized’ this for me and mine, assembling a mashed potato crust of both sweet and russet potatoes AND with an optional and deliciously cheesy addition. It’s the perfect meal, and an oh so comforting dinner!

You need this insanely good cottage pie recipe in your life. Nothing is more comforting on a chilly evening than cozying up with a warm bowl of beefy goodness made all the better with thick gravy and a potato mash.

If it’s ground beef recipes you’re after, don’t miss my French Onion Salisbury Steak, Swedish Meatballs, or my Wagyu Meatloaf!

The meat mixture is browned using olive oil, seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves and black pepper, and thickened with tomato paste and all-purpose flour. Just as in a traditional Shepherd’s Pie, the potato mash uses egg yolk to bind, allowing to a delicious dish to emerge straight from your oven.

Like most hearty Irish food, you can make an entire baking dish full of this savory beef mince in the same amount of time it would take you to heat up random leftovers. The added BONUS? I am betting you have most, if not all, the ingredients sitting in your pantry. You may just want to consider a double batch!

How to Make Cottage Pie

Before Beginning

Preheat your oven to 400°F. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Set aside.

Spray an 11 x 7-inch casserole pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

Make the Filling

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. When the oil shimmers, add onion and carrot.

Cook together for about 8 minutes until they have softened and browned slightly. Add chopped garlic and cook for one minute more.

Remove the veg to a bowl and set aside. Reduce to medium heat and add the beef, breaking it up as it cooks with a wooden spoon.

Once browned, create a well in the center of the skillet. Add Worcestershire and tomato paste (or mushroom ketchup) and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, slowly incorporating bits of beef into the paste mixture.

Adjust the heat to allow the paste to brown a bit but reducing the heat shy of burning it. Do not worry about sticking to the bottom of the pan as all the brown bits will all come up (rather deliciously!) during the deglaze.

Add the beef back to the skillet and sprinkle with the flour, the mixed herbs, and season with pepper. Keep the mixture moving in the pan and cook for 2 to 3 minutes to rid the mixture of any flour taste.

Remove the skillet from the heat and add a glug of dry red wine. Use the back of the wooden spoon to scrape up any accumulation or fond from the bottom of the skillet.

Return to the heat, turning to the gentlest possible simmer, and add the beef broth and 2 bay leaves. Cover the pan and simmer for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minute simmer, cut the heat and remove the lid. Allow the filling to cool for 20 minutes before adding it to the prepared baking dish.

Prepare the Potato Mash

In a saucepan over low heat, add heavy cream and butter and allow the cream to heat and the butter to melt. Whisk in the herbs and Kosher salt to taste. Keep warm.

Peel all of the potatoes and cut them into 2-inch chunks. Boil them together or separately in salted water until tender, then drain. I boil mine together and separate them after the boil.

The pieces are large enough to where separating them is not hard. Also, it will not matter very much if you end up with some sweet potatoes in the white mash, or some white potatoes in the sweet potato mash.

Place potatoes respectively into two separate bowls and break them up separately using a hand-held potato masher or a fork. Add half the cream mixture to each bowl and continue to mash to a smooth purée. Add an egg yolk to each and stir to combine well.

Optional: if you plan to use an onion cheese and a Double Gloucester cheese in your potato crust, add one cheese to each potato mash (it does not matter which cheese you add to which potato), and mix to combine. Again, this is purely optional, but very, very TASTY!

Assembly

Remove the bay leaves from the thick beef mixture. If the mixture appears too thick, add some additional beef broth or stock to thin it out slightly.

You should have it at a consistency to where it can be poured into an even layer in an 11 x 7-inch baking pan. Also, to avoid the mash ‘sinking’ during the bake, cool the filling before loading it up with the mash.

When ready, and starting at one corner, spoon one of the mashed potato mixtures to the opposite corner in as straight a line as you are able and filling in behind it. Repeat the process with the other potato, levelling everything off as you go.

If desired, use the tines of a fork to create a pattern on the top of the potato crust. Creating the peaks and valleys with a fork is a great way to “pretty it up” if serving this dish for company, and it takes only but a minute.

Bake

Place the casserole dish atop the lined baking sheet and load into the preheated oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes. The savory gravy beneath the potatoes will begin to bubble up along the sides and in the corners, so it’s important to place the baker atop a lined tray to catch any drips.

At the end of the baking time, turn your oven’s broil feature on. DO NOT WALK AWAY! Leave the meat pie beneath the broiler for several minutes allowing the peaks of the potato crust to deeply brown.

Once the tops of the mash are golden, remove from the oven and let stand 15 minutes before digging in. This delicious Irish dish will be HOT, HOT, HOT! Spoon individual servings into wide, shallow bowls being sure to offer some of each flavor of mash to each person.

Modifying the Norm to Make It Not Entirely Average

• To increase the good carb intake, load the beef mixture with plenty of finely chopped kale.
• Replace the potato mash (or half of it) with mashed turnips.
• Create a mixture of shaved parmesan cheese and fresh minced herbs to sprinkle over the top of the potatoes just before going into the oven.