Classic comfort food recipes
These comfort food classics are the dishes for cold autumn evenings: pies under puff pastry or mash, baked pasta, sausages with onion gravy, and puddings soaked in toffee sauce or custard. Most come from British and American home kitchens, with moussaka, lasagne alla bolognese and gratin dauphinois from Greece, Italy and France.
Bake chicken pot pie or shepherd’s pie at the weekend, make bangers and mash or a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup on a weeknight, and finish with sticky toffee pudding or bread and butter pudding. Every recipe gives exact amounts, scales to the number of people eating and sends what you still need to a shared shopping list.
20 recipes
Macaroni Cheese🇬🇧 British recipes · Dinner · 55 min
Chicken Pot Pie🇺🇸 American recipes · Dinner · 2 h 20 min
Shepherd’s Pie🇬🇧 British recipes · Dinner · 1 h 55 min
Lasagne alla Bolognese🇮🇹 Italian recipes · Dinner · 4 h 15 min
Creamy Mushroom Pasta🇮🇹 Italian recipes · Dinner · 35 min
Meatloaf🇺🇸 American recipes · Dinner · 1 h 45 min
Gratin Dauphinois🇫🇷 French recipes · Side dish · 1 h 50 min
Chicken Noodle Soup🇺🇸 American recipes · Lunch · 1 h 50 min
Grilled Cheese Sandwich🇺🇸 American recipes · Lunch · 40 min
Bangers and Mash🇬🇧 British recipes · Dinner · 50 min
Chicken and Leek Pie🇬🇧 British recipes · Dinner · 2 h 30 min
Moussaka🇬🇷 Greek recipes · Dinner · 3 h
Buttermilk Fried Chicken🇺🇸 American recipes · Dinner · 5 h 30 min
Cottage Pie🇬🇧 British recipes · Dinner · 2 h 35 min
Toad in the Hole🇬🇧 British recipes · Dinner · 1 h 15 min
Steak and Ale Pie🇬🇧 British recipes · Dinner · 5 h 30 min
Chili con Carne🇺🇸 American recipes · Dinner · 4 h 15 min
Biscuits and Gravy🇺🇸 American recipes · Breakfast · 45 min
Sticky Toffee Pudding🇬🇧 British recipes · Dessert · 1 h
Bread and Butter Pudding🇬🇧 British recipes · Dessert · 1 h 30 min
Pies with a crisp lid: the filling does the work
With a pie, the filling decides whether the lid stays crisp. Chicken pot pie takes its sauce thicker on the hob than it needs to be, because the chicken and vegetables keep releasing liquid in the oven and a thin filling boils up and lifts the lid. Shepherd’s pie is simmered uncovered until thick for the same reason, or the filling bubbles up through the mash.
The filling must also be cold when the pastry goes on, because a warm filling melts the pastry before it can bake. Chicken and leek pie has a hole cut in its lid so the steam escapes instead of lifting the pastry, and chicken pot pie bakes on a heated tray, with a strip of pastry on the rim that anchors the lid as it rises.
Mash, gravy and béchamel: the small steps that matter
In bangers and mash, the sausages are roasted rather than fried, so they brown evenly and leave juices in the tin for the gravy; the onions for that gravy cook slowly in butter for 20 minutes until deep gold; and the milk goes into the mash warm, because cold milk makes it gluey.
Lasagne alla bolognese simmers its ragù in milk before the wine and tomato go in, which keeps the meat tender over two hours, and its béchamel should still be loose enough to pour, since a stiff one makes a dry lasagne. Rest it for 15 minutes before cutting, or it slumps on the plate; moussaka needs at least 30 minutes for its béchamel to set.
Making comfort food ahead
Many of these can be made ahead, which helps on busy fall weeknights. Lasagne alla bolognese and moussaka can be assembled the day before and baked straight from the fridge, with an extra 10 minutes for the lasagne and 10 to 15 for the moussaka. Assembled shepherd’s pie keeps two days in the fridge, and so does the filling for chicken pot pie.
Leftovers hold up too. Meatloaf is as good cold as hot and keeps three days in the fridge, sliced for sandwiches or fried in a dry pan until the edges crisp, and sticky toffee pudding reheats well and improves after a day soaked in its sauce.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between shepherd’s pie and cottage pie?
- The meat: shepherd’s pie is made with lamb and cottage pie with beef. Here the lamb mince is braised with carrot and rosemary under a mash lid forked into ridges that crisp in the oven, while the beef mince is simmered with onion, mushrooms and red wine and covered with mustard mash and grated cheddar. Both need a well-reduced filling, or the gravy bubbles up through the potato.
- Why put mayonnaise on a grilled cheese sandwich?
- Mayonnaise spread thinly on the outside browns more evenly than butter and does not burn at the edges, because its oil and egg colour at a lower temperature than butter’s milk solids, which scorch. Cook the grilled cheese sandwich in a dry pan over medium-low heat for 4 to 5 minutes a side, so the cheddar and mozzarella melt through before the bread is done.
- Why soak bread in milk for meatloaf?
- The soaked bread, called a panade, keeps the loaf tender: its starch holds on to water that the meat proteins would otherwise squeeze out as they set, so a loaf bound with dry breadcrumbs comes out firmer and drier. For the meatloaf here, white bread soaks in milk for 10 minutes and is mashed to a paste before it goes in with the beef and pork mince.
- Does gratin dauphinois have cheese in it?
- No. Gratin dauphinois is potatoes sliced 2 to 3 mm thick and baked in cream and milk in a dish rubbed with garlic, with no cheese, stock or egg; the starch from the unrinsed slices thickens it. Adding gruyère makes it a gratin savoyard, a different dish. Bake it slowly at 160°C and let it rest for 15 minutes so it sets enough to cut.
- What makes sticky toffee pudding sticky?
- The toffee sauce goes on while the sponge is still hot: a third of it, made from butter, dark brown sugar and double cream, is poured over the pricked sponge so it soaks in, and the rest is served with vanilla ice cream. The sponge stays moist because the dates are soaked with bicarbonate of soda, which breaks them down so they dissolve into it.