Pastitsio is one of our favorite traditional Greek homecooked meals! When I first visited Greece with Mr. 197, I got so bored eating all the grilled meaty dishes, and I insist on asking him to take me to a place with homecooked food.
I really like traditional homecooked food, because it’s so hearty, it’s something that reminds us of home – plus, it’s more likely I can repeat it at home if I like it.
So pastitsio is a greek style baked pasta dish. Many people describe it as Greek Lasagna. It has layers of macaroni, top with tomato meat sauce and bechamel sauce with cheese. If you like the typical lasagna, I highly recommend you give this Greek version a try too. Pastitsio is so hearty, and perfect for a weekend dinner or a gathering with family and friends.
Pastitsio
Ingredients
Pasta
- 250 g Macaroni (ideally macaroni that is long like spaghetti)
- 1 Egg white
Red Meat Sauce
- 400 g Minced beef can be substituted with ½ beef & ½ pork
- 400 g Canned tomatoes
- 1 Red onion
- 1 clove Garlic
- Cinnamon
- Black pepper
- Basil chopped
Béchamel sauce (White Sauce)
- 40 g Butter
- 40 g Plain flour
- 300 mL Milk
- Nutmeg
- Grated cheese
Instructions
Cook pasta
- Cook the pasta according to instructions on the package. You could cook the pasta for 1 min less than the suggestion.
- Drain the water and leave it aside.
Red meat sauce
- Cut the onion and garlic into small cubes.
- Heat up a pan with a teaspoon of olive oil at medium-high heat. Stir-fry the onion and garlic until softened.
- Add the minced meat and keep mixing until it's cooked.
- Add the tomato sauce and water. Stir and mix briefly.
- Add black pepper, 2 bay leaves, and a bit of cinnamon, also add beef stock.
- Keep it boiling until the sauce is no longer runny. If your pasta is a bit undercooked, keep the sauce runnier, if the pasta is already well cooked, then make the sauce thicker.
Bechamel sauce
- Melt the butter and add the flour. Stir with a whisk.
- Add milk bit by bit, keep stirring. This is to make sure a smooth bechamel sauce and there are no big crumbs inside. We added around 300mL of milk, when lifting the sauce up with the whisk, it will drop like a ribbon - that's you know when the sauce is ready.
- Add some nutmeg and grated hard cheese inside. Stir occasionally until you are ready to assemble.
- Split the egg white and yolk. Pour the yolk inside the sauce, and leave the egg white aside.
Assemble
- Preheat the oven at 180°C.
- Add the egg white to the pasta, mix well.
- Add the meat sauce on top, spread evenly.
- Add the bechamel sauce on top of the meat sauce, spread evenly.
- Add extra hard cheese on top.
- Bake in the oven for 25-30 mins or until it's golden.
- Cool it down for 10-15mins before cutting it to serve.