Celebrity square meals #33: Jason Flemyng's 'Sweet potato cottage pie'

Serves 6

I cook quite a lot, in fact I love it, and this is what I'll be eating after the marathon tomorrow. It's a bastardised version of a traditional cottage pie recipe - I've adapted it, adding the sweet potato. I cook it a lot - too much, probably - but it's dead easy and everyone's always really impressed. It's great after a long run, and you can stick it in a low oven and leave it - even while you're out doing a half-marathon training run.

1½lb extra-lean beef mince
2 onions
1oz butter, guiltily added when no one else is looking
A little plain flour, to thicken
A big splosh of red wine
½ pint fresh beef stock
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
A big splosh of tomato purée
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
for the topping
1½lb of potatoes - half of them sweet, half normal
¼ pint milk
2oz butter or a dollop of crème fraîche, depending on how healthy you are

Start with the onions and butter in a big Le Creuset pan. When they're soft, add the beef and flour (which mysteriously vanishes into the meat), then the herbs, wine, stock, purée and seasoning. You can leave that on for as long as you like, just make sure it doesn't dry out.

Boil the potatoes, and mash them with the butter and milk. Then it's everything into a dish, with the mash on top, and into an oven (180°C/350°F/ gas mark 4) for an hour. Leave it for half an hour before you eat it - it's best when it's just warm, not boiling hot.

Jason is running the London Marathon for the Leukemia Research Fund. To sponsor him, call 020-7269 9001