a nostalgic take on the classic mince & tatties recipe
When I was a child my mother used to serve us children mince and tatties for dinner and it was the best thing ever! The recipe included regular beef mince (or hamburger as it was called when I grew up in Canada) fried up with an onion and a tin of Campbells Condensed Alphabet Soup poured over the top. Those little pasta letters floating around in the mince were so much fun to fish out and spell words with.
Pure and utter heaven!
Served with a great tower of buttery mashed potatoes and a giant spoonful (or two or three!) of my mother’s home made Cape Breton Chow Chow this was just about as good as it got when it came to dinner time.
I’m a mother now myself, and mince and tatties is still a regular fall-back on family meal. Sometimes I cheat and I make it with whatever veg I have in the fridge that is needing used up, water and a spoonful of Bisto gravy granules to flavour and thicken. Total comfort food.
Sometimes I jazz it up a bit and throw in a handful of alphabetti pasta, reminiscent of those childhood meals I once enjoyed. This recipe tastes very similar to what I remember, but keep in mind it’s been over 20 years since I’ve had a tin of Campbell’s Condensed Soup!
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 1 stick celery finely chopped
- 1 carrot finely chopped
- 0.5 courgette finely chopped
- 2 large brown mushrooms VERY finely chopped (optional)
- 500 grams lean steak mince (Aberdeen Angus is nice!)
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- 250 ml good quality beef stock (I use half a Knorr stock cube in hot water)
- 30 grams alphabet pasta
- Shetland sea salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
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Instructions
- Heat the oil in a saute pan over medium high heat.
- Fry the onion until it softens, about five minutes. Add the celery, carrot, courgette and mushrooms (if using) and fry for a few more minutes.
- Add the beef mince and season well with salt and pepper. Fry until well browned.
- Add the Worcestershire sauce and tomato puree and stir until well combined.
- Pour in the stock, stir well and then sprinkle over the alphabetti pasta. Turn the heat down to medium low and leave to cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is cooked.
- Serve with a tower of hot buttery mashed potatoes and steamed greens.
Notes
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Carrot & Cumin Soup
looks delicious
Great idea.
This is a great idea – I’d never have thought of this
Thanks Sam 🙂
I have never seen or heard of this before…..What a genius idea!! I am going to do this with my two x
Awesome – let me know what they think of it if you do! 🙂
Looks delicious!
such a sweet idea, I used to love alphabet pasta on toast, never thought of using it in a dish like this… lovely!
Alphabet Spaghetti… brilliant Elizabeth… this is going on my next shopping list… maybe an alphabet tuna pasta bake?!!
I like it – alphabetti spaghetti for adults. 🙂
absolutely! grown up food doesn’t have to be boring 🙂
I love alphabet spaghetti. It’s like learning and eating 🙂
Absolutely! 😀 Who says you can’t play with your food!
I would never have thought about adding alphabet spaghetti to a meal like this. I remember loving spelling words out when I was a kid at dinner time with these! x
Who says you can’t play with your food, eh? 😀
This is def a way to get my kids to eat their meals quickly.
If you have fussy children like mine make sure you cut the veg up really small, especially the mushrooms! 🙂