Pastitsio (Baked Macaroni)
I suppose this could be called the "comfort food" of Greek cooking. Pastitsio
uses a béchamel sauce, one of the five mother sauces. My sister
and I absolutely love this, and we used to make it all the time when we saw each
other more often. But I also eat it at the St. Catherine's Greek Festival every
year.
Ingredients
Macaroni
- 1 pound macaroni
- 1/4 pound butter
- 1 1/2 pounds ground turkey or beef
- 1/2 can tomato paste
- 6 ounces grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- Salt and pepper
Sauce
- 4 cups warm milk, divided
- 5 eggs
- 6 tablespoons flour
- 1 1/2 sticks butter
Instructions
- Cook macaroni (but not well done) in boiling, salted water and drain.
- Sauté onion in a little butter.
- Add ground meat and stir until brown.
- Add tomato paste, thinned with a little water.
- Add salt, pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook until meat is done.
- Melt butter; pour over drained macaroni, mixing carefully.
- Spread half of the macaroni on the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch pan.
- Sprinkle half of the grated cheese on top.
- Spread entire meat mixture on top.
- Cover with remaining macaroni and remaining grated cheese.
- For the Sauce, boil 3 cups of the milk with 1 1/2 sticks butter.
- Add flour to remaining 1 cup milk and blend well.
- Add flour mixture to boiling butter and milk. Thicken and cool.
- After this has cooled, add 5 beaten eggs, or drop small amounts of the
milk mixture into the eggs while stirring constantly. Once the egg mixture
gets warm to hot, add the remaining milk.
- Pour sauce over the macaroni. Shake the pan and insert a knife to
penetrate thoroughly.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 to 45 minutes.
Prep time: 25 min | Cook time: 55 min | Yield: 8 to 12 servings
From the kitchen of Kathy Mills, Georgia.
From the Family Recipes Collection of Linda Jolly and Lisa Stephens.
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