Here's How You Should Be Reheating Cottage Pie
A great part about making cottage pie is that the dish is often large enough to have tasty leftovers the following day. But to ensure your meaty pie stays just as tasty as it was when you first made it there are some special steps you can take when reheating it. They're designed to preserve the moist filling and lightly crispy mashed potato top. The best way to keep the textures of your dish just right and as delicious as before is to use an oven to reheat it.
Place your desired serving of cottage pie in an oven-safe dish, cover with foil, and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. While this may feel like a long time for leftovers, it's worth it, as it will slowly heat up your dish so you won't lose moisture and it will keep your cottage pie from becoming overcooked. If you want to create an even crispier texture on top you can opt to remove the foil for a few minutes at the end and turn your broiler on. Just don't let it sit exposed like this for too long or it could start to burn.
How to reheat a frozen cottage pie
If you're reheating a cottage pie that has been frozen there are a few strategies for how to reheat it. If you plan ahead, you can transfer it from the freezer to the fridge the night before so it can thaw out and be reheated as if it were a freshly made version. A benefit of doing this is that your cottage pie won't have too much excess moisture when reheating, so you won't have to worry about certain components becoming soggy. Another benefit is that you'll get an even reheat of your cottage pie.
However, not everyone is going to have the foresight to make this transfer ahead of time.
If you fall in this second category of people don't fret. You can absolutely reheat a cottage pie straight from frozen and still get tasty results. Hopefully, you've frozen it in an oven-safe dish, but if not, you'll have to transfer it to one now. You'll then cover it with foil like before, but instead of cooking for 30 minutes, you'll leave it in for an hour. Once your pie has finished heating you can check if it's heated all the way through by sticking a knife or fork into the middle and seeing if it's warm to the touch. And, again, you can take the foil off for the last part of the heating-up process, to get the top nice and crisp.