Pastitsio

Baked pasta with spiced meat and thick béchamel.

Ingredients

• 500 g Pasta
• 700 g Ground beef
• 2 Onions
• 4 Tomatoes
• 3 tbsp Tomato paste
• 1 Cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp Nutmeg
• ¾ cup Red wine
• 150 g Butter
• ¾ cup Flour
• 5 cups Milk
• 3 Egg yolks
• 2 cups Hard cheese
• 2 tsp Salt

Method

1. Make the meat sauce — Brown the beef with onion, add tomato, paste, wine and cinnamon and simmer 40 minutes until dry.
2. Boil the pasta — Cook until just underdone and toss with a little egg white and cheese.
3. Make the béchamel — Cook butter and flour into a roux, whisk in warm milk, and cook until very thick — thicker than seems right, it must hold its shape.
4. Enrich — Beat in the yolks, nutmeg and cheese off the heat.
5. Layer — Pasta, then meat, then a final thick layer of béchamel.
6. Bake — Cook at 180°C for 50 minutes until deeply golden and set.
7. Pastitsio is ready — Rest 30 minutes before cutting or it will slump.

More Greece recipes

• Moussaka
• Greek Salad
• Chicken Souvlaki
• Spanakopita
• Tzatziki
• Pork Gyros