I embarked on shepherd’s pie yesterday only to find I had no potatoes. So I topped it with bread.
An onion, two sticks of celery, a left-over bit of fennel, a red pepper and a carrot chopped and cooked together in a frying pan until starting to brown slightly.
A kilo of minced lamb, browned a bit.
Put the veg, the meat, plenty of garlic and rosemary, and some beef stock in a pan and simmer for an hour or so.
Put the sauce in a shallow oven-proof dish, then top with slices of bread (I used multi-grain) spread with French mustard, mustard-side down. Put in the oven, 180C until bubbling and looking brown and crunchy on top. Yummy.