A Taste of Greece for Dinner

My first experience with the traditional Greek dish, Pastitsio was back when I was about 14 years old. My aunt, uncle, and cousin had come up to visit and for dinner we went to Aristo's in Salt Lake City. At the time I was much more picky about food which led me ultimately to chose Pastitsio off the menu. While we waited outside surrounded by exceptional smells in the dimming twilight, I saw other customer's plates. Nearby I saw was something that looked like weird lasagna. I secretly hoped that it was what I had ordered.  To my great surprise, the weird lasagna was exactly what I had ordered.

During my junior year of college, I got the incredible opportunity to go on Study Abroad where one of the countries I visited was Greece. There I renewed my love for Mediterranean foods and decided that I would bring a bit of Greece to my dinner table. I got the following recipe from Martha Stewart but changed it a bit to suite my personal taste.

Ingredients

For The Meat Sauce

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 white onions, cut into 1/4-inch diced pieces
• 1 pound ground beef
• 2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 2 cups water

• For The Bechamel

  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3 cups whole milk
  • 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • 2 teaspoons coarse salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 pinch ground cayenne pepper

• Pasta

  • Unsalted butter, for baking dish
  • 1 pound Pastitsio noodles

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

Prepare the Pastitsio noodles according to the directions on the package. If you cant find Pastitsio noodles, you can use any other tubular noodle (I used penne). To save time, I got started on the meat mixture as the water began to boil and cook the noodles. 

In a deep skillet, cook your onions in olive oil until soft. Add ground beef (traditionally lamb is used so you can experiment with what you like) and cook adding spices once meet starts to turn brown.

You can incorporate the cinnamon, course salt, ground pepper, and nutmeg one at a time but I found that while I waited for the meat to cook I could save time by gathering my seasonings together in one container. This also made for a more even dispersion of the seasonings and I felt it contributed to a deeper taste. 

Next add wine until it has almost evaporated. If you are worried about the alcohol content, it often evaporates during the cooking process. However if you feel uncomfortable adding wine into your Pastitsio, I don't see much harm in excluding it since the entire cooking process allows for a flavorful end dish. Around this time, your noodles should be fully cooked. Drain and let sit. Just make sure to try and keep them from clumping together! Oil is definitely your friend here though I would try to limit how much you use.

Now add the tomato paste, bay leaves, and 2 cups of water to your meat mixture. Let this simmer as you begin to work on the Bechamel.

In a large saucepan, melt your butter. Once the butter begins to bubble, add flour and baking powder. Stir it constantly with a wire whisk for one minute. The entire mixture will kind of clump into ball but you want to try and as much air into it as possible. Slowly add milk (I used whole milk but reduced or skim milk would work just as well especially if you don't want to add additional calories) and continue to whisk mixture until smooth. The mixture will eventually bubble and become thick, when this happens remove the pan from heat. Stir in Parmesan, salt, black pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper. 

 In a greased 9-by-13 inch glass pan lay pasta down at the bottom. Since I used penne, I laid them all down in one direction so that it imitated the long Pastitsio noodles I didn't have. If you are going to do the same with your noodles, try to get them arranged as quick as possible so the Bechamel wont lose heat and fluffy-ness. Pour meat mixture after removing the bay leaves on top of the noodles. Then pour Bechamel over the meat mixture and smooth with spatula so that meat is completely covered.

Bake mixture for about 30-40 minutes (I did mine closer to 30 minutes and realized it needed to be longer) so that the top is set and golden brown. The hardest part is waiting since your entire kitchen starts to smell incredible! Contrary to what you might think, the Bechamel mixture does not burn easily so you can leave it in the oven longer than 40 minutes (probably 45-50 minutes) to get that nice golden color on top. 

This is what my Pastitsio ended up looking like. It tasted delicious though if you want REALLY good Pastitsio, I would recommend going to Aristo's (or Greece for that matter) and try it out yourself. Your taste buds will thank you!