Sweet Pepper, Beef & Pumpkin 'Pies'

FOODBUZZ

This recipe gives a colourful, autumnal twist to the classic family favourite, Cottage Pie. Deconstructing familiar dishes and reassembling them to create new ones is a fantastic way of adding some variety to your meals. The filling for the 'pie' is a rich bolognese sauce and instead of chopping the peppers and adding them to the filling, they are instead used as edible dishes to contain the pie. I've used the long pointed peppers here but you could easily use the normal block shaped ones instead. It is essential to use red peppers because they contrast beautifully with the orange pumpkin and harmonise well with the tomatoey bolognese sauce.

Mashed potato is the usual topping for Cottage Pie but as it's pumpkin season, and because of their gorgeous autumnal colour, I've chosen to use pumpkin instead. However, mashed pumpkin doesn't have the fluffy texture of potato, so instead the pumpkin is diced and left in chunky pieces on the top of the 'pies'. A light drizzle of oil helps to crisp up the tops but you could also use some grated cheese if you prefer.

To save time you can cook the bolognese sauce and diced pumpkin in advance and assemble just before cooking or even prepare the 'pies' themselves in advance. If you're cooking from chilled don't forget to allow extra cooking time.

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Sweet Pepper, Beef & Pumpkin Pies

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Serves 4

Ingredients

450g Lean Minced Beef

2 Sticks of Celery, finely diced

1 Small Onion, finely chopped

1 Clove of Garlic, crushed

3 Tbsp Sun dried Tomato Paste

450ml Passata

200ml Water

1 Tsp Dried Oregano

1 Bay Leaf

Sea Salt & Freshly Ground Black Pepper

600g Pumpkin, finely diced

4 Medium Sized Red Peppers

Olive or Rape Seed Oil

Freshly Grated Nutmeg

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Dry fry the mince in a large frying pan, breaking it up into smaller pieces as it cooks. Add the onions and celery and continue to cook until the onions are soft. Add the crushed garlic, sun dried tomato paste, passata, water and herbs to the pan. Stir well and bring up to the boil. Leave to simmer on a low heat for an hour, adding more water to the pan if necessary. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Whilst the mince is cooking, steam the pumpkin until tender.

Halve the peppers lengthways and remove the seeds and white membrane. Place them in an ovenproof dish and pre heat the oven to 200℃/180℃ Fan. Divide the mince between the pepper halves and top with the diced pumpkin. Spray or drizzle over a little oil and then sprinkle with some grated nutmeg.

Cook in the pre heated oven for about 45 minutes or until the peppers are cooked and the pumpkin is golden brown.

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