Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie

Pre-heat oven to 350*

In a small bowl, mash the flour into the to tomato paste and set aside.

To make the mashed potatoes, toss the potatoes into a large saucepan with enough generously salted water to cover the potato pieces.  Bring to a boil and let potatoes cook until they become tender.  I don't like my mashed potatoes to be mushy, so I cook them until you can pierce them with a fork with a little effort, but they're not raw inside--but you do you.

Once they're cooked to your liking, drain them, add the butter, milk, and cheese and mash them.  I love using this hand-held potato masher from OXO (I'm not getting any compensation from them--I just like this tool :-)  The potatoes come out a little lumpy and quite lovely.  If you like your mashed potatoes super smooth, you'll want to use a handheld mixer.  Taste for salt and pepper and adjust accordingly, adding more butter or cheese if desired, too.

Next, you're going to make the vegetarian filling.  In a 4-5 quart Dutch oven, heat about 2 tablespoons of the olive oil until shimmering, but not smoking.  Saute the onions and half the garlic for several minutes, until the onions are getting transparent and quite tender.  Now add the zucchini, red bell pepper, half the sweet basil leaves, eggplant, carrot, the rest of the garlic and tomatoes.  Stir so that all the vegetables are well-mixed and get coated with the olive oil.  Add another tablespoon of olive oil if the mixture seems a little dry.  Add the sprig of fresh rosemary and the thyme, and stir to mix.  

Add a very generous pinch of salt and a few twirls of pepper at this point.  You will need to add more salt after the mixture has cooked for a little bit.  Don't skip this step--the mixture really needs to cook with some salt to bring out the flavors of the melange of vegetables.  

Finally, add the tomato paste and flour mixture to the vegetable mixture and mix well, letting the tomato paste mixture melt in and coat the vegetables.

Bring mixture to a simmer, cover and let simmer, stirring frequently to avoid sticking, for about 30 minutes.

Grease a 9 x 12 casserole dish liberally with olive oil.

Taste the vegetable mixture for seasonings and add as needed--I find that some lemon-pepper, seasoned salt and a little of Penzey's Sandwich Seasoning go a long way, but that's not for everyone.  Do season accordingly.  The first time I made this dish, I was happy that I had taste-tested it because it does need a bit of seasoning, even with the best and freshest of ingredients.  Once seasoned appropriately, add the peas and bring the mixture back to a simmer for about a minute.

Pour the vegetable mixture into greased casserole, toss in the remaining sweet basil leaves, top with mashed potatoes and finally with cheese.  

Place casserole onto a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil and place in pre-heated oven.  Bake for about 30 minutes, or until you can see the ratatouille mixture bubbling up on the sides of the dish and the cheese is nicely golden brown.

Enjoy with a nice pinot noir and a crispy, green salad.  Bon Appetite!