Pastitsio
Greece looked at baked pasta and said what if we added cinnamon and a duvet of bechamel. This is the fast skillet edition, finished under the grill instead of baked for an hour, and it absolutely still counts.
- Total time
- 19 min
- Serves
- 4
- Effort
- Medium
What you need
Written for 4 — nudge the counter and the numbers follow.
0 of 10 in the basket.
How you make it
Bring a large pan of well-salted water to the boil and cook the pasta to just under the packet time, about 8 minutes; drain and keep warm.
While it boils, fry the onion in the oil in a wide ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat for 2 minutes, add the beef and cook 5 minutes, breaking it up, until browned with no pink left.
Stir in the tomatoes, cinnamon, salt and pepper and simmer 3 minutes until the mixture is thick rather than soupy.
In a separate pan melt the butter over medium heat, whisk in the flour for 30 seconds, then whisk in the milk and cook 2 to 3 minutes until it coats a spoon; off the heat stir in the nutmeg, half the cheese, and the egg yolk.
Fold the drained pasta into the meat, level the top, pour over the bechamel, scatter the remaining cheese, and grill on high for 4 minutes until bronzed and bubbling. Rest 3 minutes so it slices instead of sliding.
Read all that and thought “absolutely not”?
Completely fair. Pastitsio is sitting in the Greek kitchen right now, it costs nothing, and it will never arrive.
Order it insteadMore from the Greek kitchen
Lemon, oregano and a suspicious amount of feta.