Ingredients
- Meat Sauce
- Olive oil to coat the bottom of a large pot
- 2 large onions, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 pounds lean ground meat. I used half ground beef and half ground lamb
- 1 large can diced tomatoes with juice
- 1/3 cup kalamata olives, chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
- Pasta
- 1 lb pasta - see note below
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 2 cups whole milk or 1/2 and 1/2
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/2 cup kefalotiri or romano cheese, grated
- Bechamel Sauce
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1/3 cup flour
- 4 cups milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 pound kefalotiri or romano cheese, grated and divided
Preparation
Step 1
For the meat sauce - cover bottom of large pot with olive oil and saute onion until lightly browned; add garlic; add meat and cook until brown, crumbling with a fork; add remaining meat sauce ingredients to pot, mixing well. Cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until thick. Let mixture cool, remove and discard cinnamon stick and bay leaf.
Prepare pasta by boiling until al dente in plenty of boiling, salted water. Drain and place pasta in a large bowl. Add butter, milk, eggs and 1/2 cup cheese. Gently stir to coat and set aside.
To prepare bechamel sauce, melt butter over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Stir in flour until smooth, cook, whisking for 2 minutes. Gradually add milk,, stirring, until thickend. Remove from heat and add salt, pepper and nutmeg.
In a medium bowl beat 3 eggs. Slowly add hot cream sauce to eggs. Stir thoroughly so eggs don't curdle.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter or spray a large baking pan, 10-12" x 18" or use 2 smaller pans.
Place half of the pasta mixture in the bottom of the pan. If you use bucatini or Misko pasta place the pasta tubes side by side and stack them like logs. Penne pasta also works well but you won't get the same visual effect. Cover evenly with all of the meat sauce. Sprinkle 1/3 of the cheese over meat sauce. Add remaining pasta mixture, sprinkle another 1/3 of the cheese over the top. Pour bechamel sauce evenly over the entire casserole and top with remaining cheese.
Bake until bechamel sauce sets and is golden brown, approximately 1 hour. Cool at least 20 minutes before cutting.
PASTA NOTE: The large tube shaped pasta I used in this recipe is Misko Macaroni Pastitsio #2. I can't find it in any of the grocery stores or specialty shops in my area so I order it from Parthenon Foods, a great source of specialty imported foods from around the world. I have difficulty finding kefalotiri cheese also and sometimes order it as well. But romano works and is delicious in this dish. Bucatini pasta (several brands are available in some grocery stores) is also a good choice if you don't go for the Misko. Both pastas are long, hollow tubes that stand up well to a sauce. The creamy texture of the pastitsio comes from all the custardy filling that fills the tubes of pasta and from the layer of bechamel on top. When the pasta is cooked al dente it has the feel of surgical tubing (strange as that may sound). It's longer than my casserole dish so I just pinch off the ends to fit and use the smaller pieces as fill-in for the pasta layers.