When I was growing up mince beef was a staple in our house. It would have been made into cottage pie, meatballs, lasagne, curry, or simply served in gravy with spuds and cabbage.

When I look back the mince always sizzled in the pan and smelled so beefy and delicious. Over the years some mince hasn’t been great, especially supermarket varieties. Thankfully though we have some fantastic meat producers now dotted around the country who are doing it right. When I cook this meat it brings me back to childhood and the aroma. When I go to food festivals there are many meat producers selling their meat and the quality is magnificent. The chances are there’s a farm shop or butcher near you selling meat from local cattle. Suss them out and support them. The meat might cost a little bit more but the taste will far outshine the extra pennies.

Meatballs might have played an intrinsic part of my childhood eating but they’re something I still enjoy. I add some crustless white bread that’s been soaked in milk – it’s a trick I learned in Italy and adds a lovely texture to the meatballs. Parsnips have now had the benefit of a frost making them deliciously sweet. The sauce here uses parsnips and carrots that are cooked with garlic and onion until soft and then tomato, red wine and stock added. The resulting sauce is thick and rich. Fry the meatballs and add them to the sauce before simmering for another while. I’ve suggested adding pasta to them but honestly I think a few buttered spuds would work just as well if not better.

My other recipe is for souped up cottage pie with jerk spices. Jerk is a Jamaican blend of ginger, chilli, lime, nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon. The mix here is more than you need for the recipe but freeze it to have with chicken, beef, pork or roast vegetables. It’s zingy, warming and goes beautifully with the mince. You make a mince sauce like you would for regular cottage pie then add the jerk spice and a tin of black eyed peas. Rather than regular mash I’ve added some carrot mash. Local carrots are in season now and are absolutely gorgeous with an intense sweetness. Potatoes and carrots are cooked together then mashed with sour cream and butter before spooning over the spiced mince. It gets a scattering of cheese before being baked to golden, bubbling perfection. And if that doesn’t warm the cockles of your heart I don’t know what could….