PIEATHALON 10: Villa Pie (1975)

PIEATHALON BITCHES!

If you don’t know the Pieathalon rules click HERE.

My pie came from Down Under! Taryn of Retro Food for Modern Times sent me a recipe from The Leggos Italian Cookbook (1975)

Leggos not to be confused with L’eggo my Eggo.

Before we get into it–just a little history of Leggo courtesy of The Australian Food Timeline:

Leggos is an Australian company founded in 1882 that sold items like English-style pickles, baked beans, jams and soups. Because Leggo is actually a Cornish name.

However, Leggos decided to market their tomato paste (and their company) as authentically Italian. Because, why the fuck not? In 1975 they doubled down on the Italian thing with the introduction of pasta sauces, a cookbook, and advertising featuring glamorous Gina Lollobrigida.

Page image from the National Library of Australia’s Newspaper Digitisation Program

Here’s the recipe for Leggo’s Villa Pie, which is very Shepherd’s/Cottage Pie. And makes total sense considering that LEGGO IS A CORNISH NAME.

Villa Pie

3 cups minced, cold lamb (or mince steak)
1 onion, mince
1/2 tsp oregano
1 cup water
salt & pepper
1 can Leggo’s tomato paste
2 cups mashed potato
1/2 cup grated cheese
1 tbsp butter

Scramble together cold lamb, oregano (I put in, like, a full tablespoon because: ITALIAN), salt, minced onion, water, pepper and Leggo’s Tomato Paste for that truly authentic Italian (Australian) touch.
Scoop mixture into buttered casserole and top with mashed potato (mashed potatoes! Oh, this really is a Cottage Pie) Fluff potato into decorative peaks with a fork. (My decorative fork fluffing was not particularly fluffy. I ended up mounding blobs here and there a la Close Encounters of the Third Kind)

via GIPHY

Top with grated tasty cheese (no, I want NON-TASTY cheese) and dot with butter (mmmmmmmmmmmmm….butter)

Bake in a moderate oven for 40 minutes (my decorative mashed potato mounds deflated when it baked). Serve with the vegetables that are in season.

Vegetables in season:

So. To get a Villa Pie, take a Cottage Pie, add tomato, oregano and swap Parmesan for cheddar.

It took me until this exact moment for me to get the Villa/Cottage connection. Perhaps because at the moment I don’t know my asshole from my elbow–I’ve been terribly busy over the summer with travel and two jobs and taking care of both a ageing Miss Lady Girl Margot and a very successful trial attorney. Your girl is exhausted.

But no one wants to hear about that.

This pie was pretty tasty. The leftovers held up really well.

Don’t you think of a villa as being much larger than a cottage?

You want more pie, you say???

Here! PIE!

6 thoughts on “PIEATHALON 10: Villa Pie (1975)”

Weirdly, tasty cheese is an actual kind of cheese in Australia. I don’t really know what the American equivalent would be, but it actually IS quite tasty!

I would have never have made the villa/cottage connection!

I’m so glad it worked out all right and you liked it! xx

I adore the little cartoon-style recipe! I’m always excited to see a book in that style. Thank you again for all the work you put into this.

Cornish/Italian/Australian – that is one international-style pie! Thanks for hosting this again, especially since you’ve been so busy. Tell Miss Margot hello from Queen Lily.

You are Truly a Funny Gal! I enjoyed this post Very Much! I haven’t heard of a VILLA pie, but my very favourite dish or “pie” my mother made me growing up was VERY similar to this. It was called “empadao” – with a tilde over the “a” – only 2 differences, besides the name of the pie, was that on top of the decorated mashed potato topping ( she used a fork to “ruffle up & decorate” ), would then brush a lightly salted beaten egg yolk all over the mash. It would get so beautiful and golden with darker raised potato edges…..mmm…mmm…mmm…other difference is that a small amount of nutmeg was added to the meat mixture, as well as, in the mashed potato….oh yeah, mother would have laughed at the little amount of oregano to 3 cups of meat Lol.

MB December 13, 20231:30 pm Reply

Weirdly, tasty cheese is an actual kind of cheese in Australia. I don’t really know what the American equivalent would be, but it actually IS quite tasty!
S S September 9, 20233:14 am Reply

I would have never have made the villa/cottage connection!
Taryn September 7, 20236:25 am Reply

I’m so glad it worked out all right and you liked it! xx
Poppy September 6, 20236:41 pm Reply

I adore the little cartoon-style recipe! I’m always excited to see a book in that style. Thank you again for all the work you put into this.
Kari September 6, 20234:27 pm Reply

Cornish/Italian/Australian – that is one international-style pie! Thanks for hosting this again, especially since you’ve been so busy. Tell Miss Margot hello from Queen Lily.
Gotta EAT September 6, 20232:32 pm Reply

You are Truly a Funny Gal! I enjoyed this post Very Much! I haven’t heard of a VILLA pie, but my very favourite dish or “pie” my mother made me growing up was VERY similar to this. It was called “empadao” – with a tilde over the “a” – only 2 differences, besides the name of the pie, was that on top of the decorated mashed potato topping ( she used a fork to “ruffle up & decorate” ), would then brush a lightly salted beaten egg yolk all over the mash. It would get so beautiful and golden with darker raised potato edges…..mmm…mmm…mmm…other difference is that a small amount of nutmeg was added to the meat mixture, as well as, in the mashed potato….oh yeah, mother would have laughed at the little amount of oregano to 3 cups of meat Lol.