Cottage pies in baked potatoes recipe

These cottage pies in baked potatoes are brilliant way to serve up, they work for everything from kids' tea time to a casual dinner party.

This is such an attractive way to serve up a cottage pie, and gives each guest an individual serving in their own potato 'pie pot'. You will need enough cottage pie meat sauce to fill four potatoes - probably a rather less than you would need to make a pie for four people. In fact, this is a great way to use up extra meat sauce if you have made it for bolognese or lasagne. You can, of course, make some specially for this recipe, or just brown 300g mincemeat in a pan and add a jar of tomato ragù.

Ingredients

• 4 large jacket potatoes, washed
• 85g (3oz) unsalted butter
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 85g (3oz) Boursin Garlic & Fine Herbs soft cheese (or similar)
• 400g (1lb) mince meat sauce, ege bolognese

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6
2. Push a metal skewer through the centre of each potato: this reduces the cooking time and allows the steam to escape. Pop them into the preheated oven on a rack rather than in a baking dish and bake for about 1 hour, or until the potatoes feel soft when squeezed.
3. Remove a shallow lid from the top of each potato, scoop out the flesh into a bowl and mash with the butter, salt and pepper and Boursin cheese. Fill the cavities half full with the mince mix and pipe or spoon the potato back on top. Fluff up with a fork.
4. Return to the oven and bake until the potato is golden and the mince is hot, about 20 minutes. Serve with a green vegetable or salad.

Top tip for making cottage pies in baked potatoes

You can replicate this recipe using mini round squashes in autumn, or the round bottoms of butternut squashes (use the tops to make soup or other recipes). Sweet potatoes would work too.

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