I have several versions of SP. One is Italian SP. My DH's favorite.

1 lb ground beef

4 cups real mashed potatoes lightly seasoned with salt, pepper & butter

3/4 lb mozzarella cheese

2 cups Italian spaghetti sauce

1/4 tsp thyme

Brown the ground beef, drain juices off. Add thyme and 1/4 cup spaghetti sauce. Place mixture in 10" x 4" round glass casserole dish. Lay half the cheese on top. Layer the mashed pot. on top of the cheese, then add the rest of the cheese, then more sauce. Bake @ 350 till cheese melts & it's heated through, about 20 min.

I add S&P, a dash of oregano, a spoonful of tomato paste and a glug of Worcestershire sauce.

We use salt, pepper, garlic...

Beef stock, worcestershire, tomato paste, red wine if I have it etc etc.

A really good recipe, but rather labour-intensive is Anthony Sedlak's recipe. He was a Canadian chef who died far too young a few years ago.

The Main Cottage Pie

Mix my browned beef with mushroom soup and cut up cooked green beans.

Chef Ramsey makes HIS SP with lamb or beef.....I've never heard of cottage pie. Must be a regional term.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/gordon-ramsay-s-shepherd-pie-50161080

I love a good shepherd's pie (lamb, of course -- the one with beef is a "cottage pie", as shepherds don't herd cattle). It's not so much a regional term but that people seem to have forgotten the meaning of the word "shepherd". (It went beyond strange that the work lunch menu this week included "lamb cottage pie"...)

I use rosemary -- complements the lamb nicely -- and thyme goes very nicely in this too. Some garlic and onion, additional potato, maybe chopped turnips. Salt and pepper, too. If I were to make a cottage pie (beef), I'd likely forego the rosemary.

Jamie Oliver has a couple great recipes, and I found one on Serious Eats that I've adapted.

Coincidence! Our dining room has scheduled shepherd's pie for Sunday dinner.

Seemed an odd choice to me--I think the chef is on an economy binge! I knew that it is made with lamb but think he would not use that.

I probably won't go down for dinner but I'll report how other residents liked it. We usually have pot roast, ham, or such. This month we have been offered a lot of pasta dishes, and now this!

I don't use ketchup, nor do I use tomato based sauce in shepherds pie.

My daughter Cheryl, bought me the best tasting little frozen Shepherd's Pie. I hope to make one like it, just corn, beef, and mashed potatoes. Very simple. It seems to be made of some good things, made by Blake's.

Sue