Pastitsio

Pastitsio has been a favorite of my family's for years, and when my husband and I were dating I made it for him, and he fell in love too.  It is a Greek dish that is time consuming to make, but it is well worth the work!  When I describe this dish to those who have never heard of it is simple it is similar to a lasagna type casserole it has all the ingredients, pasta tomato sauce cheese, only this has more seasoning and make great left overs!

Ingredients:


For the Filling:
3/4 lb ground beef or turkey
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 garlic clove
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
1/2 t. nutmeg
pepper to taste
3/4 c. elbow macaroni, uncooked
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 c. bread crumbs


Cream Sauce:


3 tablespoons of butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 egg yolks
1/4 c. flour
1 1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. parmesan cheese


Directions:


For the filling:  
     In medium skillet, cook ground meat, onion and garlic until meat is cooked through and onion is tender.  Spoon off drippings. Add tomato sauce, salt, nutmeg, and pepper.  Simmer uncovered, until most of the liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes; set aside.
      Meanwhile, cook macaroni according to package directions, omitting salt.  Drain well and toss hot macaroni with 1 tablespoon butter.  Set aside.
     Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  place remaining 2 tablespoons in a shallow 1 1/2 quart baking dish and place in oven just long enough for the butter to melt, about 3 minutes.  Sprinkle on bread crumbs and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese.  Spread half the macaroni over the breadcrumbs.  Spoon on meat mixture.  Top with remaining macaroni and then sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup of parmesan.

For the sauce:
     In a medium sauce pan melt the butter over low heat, stir in flour and salt until smooth.  Gradually stir in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick and smooth.  Gradually stir about 1/3 of sauce into egg yolks, then pour egg mixture all at once into hot sauce, stirring constantly to avoid lumping.  Cook about 1 minute until thickened.  Remove from heat, stir in parmesan cheese.  Pour sauce over macaroni; smooth with back spoon.  Bake 25-30 minutes until hot and bubbly.

     Now the nutmeg might turn off a few of you, but please give it a try, it bring out a nice savory taste that only the mixture of meat, tomato sauce and nutmeg can give, there really is no explaining it until you try it, and I promise if you try it, you will want to make it over and over again.

TIP: to get a thick cream sauce you need to be patient, unless you are 100% sure that the sauce can not get any thicker, give it a little more time.   If you rush the sauce the dish will not turn out correctly and you will not get the full effect.

     I love garlic so I do add about 2 more cloves than what is called for, and we have found that both ground beef and ground turkey work well, with the turkey one being a little more healthy. I also like to put the onions and garlic and onion in before the beef and let them cook down, not stirring them, so they get a little browned, this brings out the flavor more and then you don't feel like you are eating a lot of onions, the get very soft and almost melt in your mouth.

 Enjoy!