This Nigella recipe is taken from the Christmas Special of her Channel 4 programme Nigella Bites. These recipes are simple and stress-free. As Nigella Says: "Christmas food is the best sort of food because it's about proper, unpretentious home cooking. Feasting isn't about formality: it's about providing friends and family with good things to eat."
1.Pour 500ml of near-boiling water over the porcini mushrooms and leave to steep.
2.Warm oil into very large thick bottomed pan and add the chopped onions, carrots and minced garlic. Cook stirring for about 10 minutes, sprinkling with the salt if the vegetables look as if they may burn.
3.Drain the porcini, reserving the soaking liquid, chop coarsely and add with the button mushrooms to the vegetable mixture. After about 5 minutes tip the whole lot out to brown the meat.
4.Add a little more oil to the pan then tip in the minced meats, breaking them up with a wooden spoon. Stir for about five minutes until the rawness has left them a bit, add salt - unstintingly - and then return the vegetable mixture to the pan.
5.Stir in the flour and add the mushroom-soaking liquid, tinned tomatoes, diluted puree, Marsala and a few drops of Worcestershire sauce.
6.Stir well, cover partly with a lid and reduce heat so that the mince bubbles gently, for about 40 minutes to an hour.
7.Meanwhile boil the potatoes in a large pan of salted water until they are nearly ready and then add the parsnips which have been peeled and cut into chunks.
8.Boil until they are cooked to easily mashable tenderness, then drain and allow to dry slightly.
9.Warm the milk and melt the butter in the heat of the potato-pan. Rice or mash the potatoes and parsnips straight into this, grate in some fresh nutmeg and add salt to taste.
10.Put the mince into a large dish approximately 37cm x 32cm, then dollop the potato mash on top, spreading with a spatula, taking care to seal the edges to prevent the meat below from bubbling up in the oven.
11.Fork lines over the top, then dot with butter and sprinkle with Worcestershire sauce.
12.If you're cooking this straight away, about 10 minutes in a 225C oven should be enough to make it piping hot and crispily golden on top. If cooking from cold, about an hour in a 190C/Gas 5 oven should do it.
© Nigella Lawson, Nigella Bites - Chatto & Windus, 2001
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