Cooking: Greek Pastitsio

Around the same time last year I cooked Greek Pastitsio but I was unable to document it because my camera died. Justyn was craving this dish so I decided to make it. Not sure why he picked a warm weekend to crave it but anyway..

I started out by browning some ground chuck (80/20) and then added a diced onion, 4 cloves of garlic, a bay leaf, ground cinnamon, tomato sauce, and petite diced canned tomatoes. It simmered for 35 minutes.

While the meat mixture simmered, I cooked the pasta to barely al dente. About 12 minutes. I wanted the pasta to absorb the liquid in the meat mixture to add more flavor to it.

I combined the two in the pasta pot with some Romano cheese.

Then I preheat the oven to 350 and started on the bechamel sauce. The bechamel started with a roux. I slowly added milk to it to avoid clumps. When it thickened, I added cheese, eggs, salt & pepper and a little nutmeg.

I put the pasta and meat mixture in a greased baking dish and then poured the bechamel sauce over it.

It baked for about 40 minutes and here it is! I served it with some cucumber, roma tomato & red onion salad.

I don't recommend making this on a warm day. I was seriously sweating up a storm in the kitchen. Although if you don't mind the heat, you should make this. Srsly good stuff!