Beef and sweet potato bake

1. Heat oil in frying pan over medium heat. Cook onion, leek and bacon. Add mince and cook, stirring. Stir in herbs, tomato paste, passata and 1/2 cup water until well combined. Bring mixutre to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes or until mixture has thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Cool.

2. Place sweet potato in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Simmer for 2 minutes or until just tender. Drain and cool.

3. Meanwhile, melt butter in a sacepan over medium heat. Stir in flour and cook for 2 minutes or until bubbly. Remove pan from heat and slowly whisk in milk. Return to heat and whisk constantly until mixture comes to the boil and thickens. Add 1/2 cup tasty cheese and stir until melted. Remove sauce from heat and cover surface with baking paper (Hint: placing paper straight onto the surface of the sauce helps prevent a skin forming.)

4. Place spinach into a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Stand for 1 minute. Drain and rinse under cold water. Squeeze liquid from spinach and roughly chop. Stir through mince.

5. Preheat oven to 180oC. Spread 1 cup of mince mixture into the base of a 12-cup baking dish. Top with a layer of sweet potato, overlapping slightly. Drizzle with cheese sauce. Cover with half of the remaining mince and lastly sweet potato. Spread remaining cheese sauce over top of layers and sprinkle with remaining tasty cheese and parmesan. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden. Stand for 10 minutes before cutting into pieces. Serve with green salad, if you like.