Kitchen

[AnneMary]

Do you guys have a good recipe for it?? Perhaps one made with hamburger and not lamb? I love it both ways, but DH definitely doesn't like lamb at all.

Have had it a few times in my life and it was to die for. Don't know why I haven't made it because we love any kind of pasta dishes. Love the creamy sauce on the top. DH has never had it, but I know he will adore it! (As long as it's made with hamburger!) Hope you or someone else can post a tried and true recipe for it. TIA AnneMary (I'm drooling just thinking about it!!!)

[Barbarainnc]

I have not tried these yet, but they got high marks!!!

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/pastitsio

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pastitsio-II/

http://greek.food.com/recipe/greek-pastitsio-100793

I'll probably make the Allrecipes or the Greek Food one and use all beef.

[JustJules]

I wish AdoreQVC was around, she has the best Greek recipes. She once gave me a recipe for Pastitsio, along with several others. I will look for it and post back. You could definitely make it with ground beef to make your DH happy.

[RespectLife]

OH BOY! Thanks for these recipes!

I think I am going to try the greek.food.com recipe first. I like that it has less eggs...to me, too many eggs in a baked pasta dish makes it dry tasting.

But the allrecipes one has wine....!!!! I feel a combo of recipes coming on!

[Sabatini2]

AnnMary, some recipes are a labor of love, and Pastitsio is one of them. You can always make the meat sauce & bechamel the day before, and reheat the following day & proceed w/ assembly.

The last time that I made Pastitsio, I used Evelyn/Athens recipe from food.com. (Her Yemista is delish!) Evelyn's Pastitsio is very good, but like most cooks, I tinker w/ it too, cutting down on the cinnamon & nutmeg, using a few Tblspns of tomato paste in the meat sauce, & upping the red wine, and use less milk when tossing the pasta layer together. This makes a large lasagna sized casserole, or 2 smaller ones.

Pastitsio by Evelyn/Athens

Ingredients:

Meat sauce

enough olive oil, to just coat the bottom of a large pot

2 large onions, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 lbs lean ground meat

2 (16 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with juice

1/3 cup chopped pitted kalamata olive (I omitted)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 bay leaf

1/2 cup red wine (I used more)

1 cinnamon stick, broken in two

Pasta

1 lb penne or 1 lb rigatoni pasta, or elbows

3 tablespoons melted butter

2 cups whole milk (I used less)

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup grated kefalotiri or 1/2 cup Romano cheese or 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Bechamel Sauce

6 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup flour

4 cups milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (I used less)

3 eggs

1/2 lb grated kefalotiri or 1/2 lb Romano cheese or 1/2 lb Parmesan cheese, divided

Directions:

1 For the meat sauce, put some olive oil in a large pot; saute onion until lightly browned; add garlic; add meat and cook until brown, crumbling with a fork; add remaining meat sauce ingredients to skillet; mix well; cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until quite thick; let mixture cool; remove and discard cinnamon stick and bay leaf.

2 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; set aside.

3 To prepare bechamel sauce, melt butter over medium heat in a saucepan; stir in flour until smooth, cook, whisking for 2 minutes; gradually add milk, stirring, until thickened; lower heat; add salt, pepper and nutmeg; remove from heat.

4 In medium-sized bowl, beat 3 eggs; slowly add hot cream sauce to eggs; stir thoroughly so eggs don't curdle.

5 Preheat oven to 350°F and butter or oil (with olive oil) a large baking pan.

6 Empty 1/2 of the penne mixture over bottom of pan; cover evenly with all of meat sauce; sprinkle 1/3 of the cheese over meat sauce; add remaining penne mixture, spreading evenly; sprinkle another 1/3 of the cheese over top; pour bechamel sauce evenly over entire casserole; top with remaining cheese.

7 Bake until bechamel sauce sets and has golden-brown patches across top, approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour; cool at least 20 minutes before cutting into pieces for serving.

8 Freezer Notes: Once the baked pastitsio has completely cooked, cut serving-size pieces, double-wrap in foil and freeze. Defrost in the usual manner and reheat in microwave (or oven) for a delicious, quick meal, when there's little time to cook and dinner is ready and waiting in the freezer!

[Sabatini2]

In the above post I cited Evelyn/Athen's recipe for Yemista, which is stuffed peppers and/or tomatoes. I'll be eternally grateful to her for a simple step in that recipe where she said "Turn off oven and leave in for another hour to 'mellow' before serving."

I now do that when I make regular stuffed peppers. Yum!

[adoreqvc]

hello jules,

i'm back and thank you for your very kind words, and i have so missed you dear friend!

below is the link for the greek pasticio recipe with a video for anyone interested, and all their greek recipes are already tested and delicious.

http://www.greekrecipes.tv/293/pastitsio

btw I am now a happily married lady and we just returned from our honeymoon.