Pastitsio
Photo: Sam Bailey · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

Pastitsio descends from the Venetian pasticcio, a baked pasta pie that reached the Ionian islands under Venetian rule, and it shares the Tselementes bechamel story with moussaka: the French-trained chef's 1920 cookbook dropped the pastry shell, put a bechamel top on the meat and pasta, and set the version every Greek kitchen now cooks. The thick hollow tube sold in Greece as pastitsio No. 2 is the pasta of choice; bucatini is the closest substitute abroad. Athens mageiria bake it in trays for the lunch crowd, and the slice with crisp bechamel top and tomato-cinnamon ragu is the canonical Athenian Sunday lunch order.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy, Eggs

Make it at home

Yield 6Hands-on 45 minTotal 1 hr 45 minDifficulty Intermediate

Ingredients

  • 500g long tube pasta (pastitsio number 2)
  • 600g beef mince
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 400g tinned plum tomatoes, crushed
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • Salt and pepper
  • 150g grated kefalotyri
  • For the bechamel: 100g butter
  • 100g flour
  • 1 litre milk
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 100g grated kefalotyri
  • pinch of nutmeg

Method

  1. Cook pasta in salted water 2 minutes less than the packet. Drain and toss with 1 tbsp olive oil and 100g of the kefalotyri.
  2. Soften onion in olive oil. Add garlic, then beef. Brown 8 minutes. Add tomatoes, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Simmer 30 minutes until thick.
  3. Make bechamel: melt butter, whisk in flour, then warm milk slowly. Cook 8 minutes until thick. Off heat, whisk in yolks, cheese and nutmeg.
  4. Layer in a deep baking dish: half the pasta, all the meat, the rest of the pasta. Pour bechamel over and smooth. Sprinkle the remaining 50g kefalotyri on top.
  5. Bake at 180 C for 50 minutes until golden. Rest 20 minutes before cutting into squares.

Tip from the editors. Use the long Greek pastitsio pasta if you can find it; ziti or rigatoni works but the texture is different.

Where to eat pastitsio

Pastitsio in Athens

Featured by TableJourney as a signature dish of Athens. See where to eat Pastitsio in Athens or the Athens signature dishes guide.

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