Meat sauce (enough for casserole + leftovers):
- -1 large onion, chopped
- -3 garlic cloves, minced
- -1 lb. lean ground meat (I used half 90/10 beef, half ground pork. Meatloaf mix or all beef would also be fine)
- -1 (16 oz.) can diced tomatoes with juice
- -1/2 can tomato paste (about 2 Tbsp.)
- -1/4 c. chopped pitted kalamata olives
- -1 tsp. salt (add more to taste)
- -1/2 tsp. ground black pepper (or to taste)
- -2 tsp. dried oregano, crumbled
- -3 bay leaves
- -1/2 c. red wine
- -1 cinnamon stick, or 1/3 tsp. ground cinnamon
- -2 springs fresh thyme, stemmed, or 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
- -1 anchovy, minced (optional, but good)
- -3 whole cloves (in a tea ball/sachet), or 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
- -1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
- -1 tsp. soy sauce
- -2 tsp. brown sugar
- -olive oil
Pasta:
- -1 lb. rigatoni or penne pasta
- -6 Tbsp. melted butter
- -2 c. whole milk
- -2 eggs, beaten
- -1/2 c. grated Parmesan (or Romano) cheese
Bechamel sauce:
- -6 Tbsp. butter
- -1/3 c. flour
- -4 c. milk
- -1 tsp. salt
- -1/8 tsp. pepper (preferably white)
- -1/4 tsp. nutmeg
- -3 eggs
For scattering:
- -1/2 lb. grated Parmesan (or Romano) cheese, divided
- 1. Meat Sauce: In a large pot, saute onion until in olive oil until lightly browned; add garlic and meat and brown. Add remaining meat sauce ingredients and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. (Or, pour sauce into crock pot and cook on low 6-10) hrs. Remove and discard cloves, cinnamon stick, and bay leaves. If sauce looks watery, ladle out a bit of the juice and discard. Puree sauce lightly with a stick blender, if desired.
- 2. Pasta: Boil until barely al dente in well-salted water. Strain. In the empty pasta pot, melt butter. Remove from heat, add pasta, milk, 1/2 c. cheese, and eggs. Gently stir to coat and set aside. Preheat oven to 350F.
- 3. Bechamel sauce: melt butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Whisk in flour until smooth. Cook, whisking for 2 minutes. Gradually add in 4 c. milk, stirring, until thickened (it will look thin for a while, but keep going). Lower heat, add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Remove from heat.
- 4. In a large bowl, beat 3 eggs. VERY slowly add cupfulls of cream sauce to eggs. Stir thoroughly so eggs don’t curdle. A second pair of hands helps a lot at this stage.
- 5. Butter or oil a 13×9-in. baking pan.
- 6. Pour 1/2 of the noodle mixture over bottom of pan. Cover evenly with 2-3 c. of meat sauce (you will have leftovers; add only about as much as you would for lasagne—too much and your pastitsio might fall apart).
- 7. Sprinkle 1/3 of the cheese over meat sauce. Add remaining pasta mixture, spreading evenly. Sprinkle another 1/3 of the cheese over top.
- 8. Pour bechamel sauce evenly over entire casserole, leaving about 1/4-in. space to the top rim. You could have as much as 1/2 c. bechamel sauce left over.
- 9. Top casserole with remaining cheese.
- 10. Bake uncovered @ 350F until bechamel sauce sets and is lightly browned, approx. 1 hr. Cool at least 15 minutes before cutting.
.jpg)
