Grandma Flo’s Pastitsio

My first blog post! Today is my birthday, and although we’re going out for dinner tonight, I figured it was the perfect cold winter day to make my grandma’s pastitsio recipe— one of those dishes that usually tastes even better the next day. This recipe also makes a hefty amount of food, so depending on how many people you’re feeding, it could be tomorrow and the next day’s dinny! 

What is pastitsio?

Pastitsio is a Greek dish often described as “Greek lasagna.” At its core, it’s just baked pasta with ground beef and a béchamel sauce — nothing too complicated. Traditional recipes vary widely — a quick web search will show countless ways to make the ground beef layer, the white sauce, and decide whether or not to include cheese. I tend to stick to my grandma’s version. She “cheats” the béchamel by adding cornstarch to warmed milk and butter. Quick and easy.

The traditional pasta used in pastitsio is bucatini and if you were to search the web for of traditional pastitsio, you’d see a thicker style pasta than Italian bucatini (“Greek” bucatini). My grandma used regular spaghetti, which is a great substitute if you already have everything but the bucatini and want to go ahead and make it. Here in Türkiye, bucatini is “oven pasta” and used to make a very similar dish.

How did grandma make it?

My grandma’s pastitsio recipe puts half the layer of pasta on the bottom, half above the ground beef. Some recipes put all the pasta on the bottom. And forget perfectly placed noodles — just make the pasta layer as flat as possible so each slice has an even amount. It might look messy, but taste is what counts. (If my aunts see this, I know it looks bad, but it tastes great I promise!)

As for the meat, I’ve received mixed messages: some say grandma added a little ketchup, some say tomato juice, some say neither. If my grandma was anything like me as a cook… I think she just did whatever wanted depending on the day! Taste as you go, start small with just the crushed tomatoes, and work your way up if you want the meat more tomato-y. Sometimes I go crazy and add a squirt of ketchup, a tablespoon of tomato paste, and the juice from the can of tomatoes. Just don’t go full bolognese – you want the tomato flavor to enhance, not dominate, the meat.

Grandma’s Pastitsio

Course: Main, PastaCuisine: Greek

Prep time

35

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

Oven Temp

350

F

Ingredients

• Ground Beef Layer

• 1 lb ground beef

• 1 medium yellow onion

• 1 can whole tomatoes (crushed with your fingers)

• Ground cinnamon

• 1-2 tbsp ketchup

• Salt & pepper to taste

• Béchamel (Grandma’s style)

• 2.5 cups milk

• 1/4 cup butter (½ stick, 59 grams)

• 1.5 tablespoons cornstarch

• 3 eggs
  

• Pasta

• 1 lb bucatini (or regular spaghetti)

Directions

• Gather all your ingredients:
  Chop onion, measure butter, pour milk, crush tomatoes, get eggs ready, and have your spices nearby.
  Butter the bottom of your baking dish.
  Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C) if baking immediately.
• Cook pasta:
  Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta 1–2 minutes less than package instructions. Drain and set aside.
  Place half of the cooked pasta evenly in the bottom of the buttered dish.
  You can make the ground beef mixture or the béchamel while the pasta cooks.
  If you have an electric kettle, one of my favorite life hacks is to fill the pot with only ~2-3 inches of water and turn up the heat while simultaneously filling my kettle and boiling water. When the kettle is boiling, I pour that into the pasta pot and it helps to speed up the “bring a pot of water to boil” process.
• Make ground beef layer:
  In a skillet, sauté onion in butter or olive oil over medium-low heat.
  Add ground beef, raise heat to medium, cook until browned.
  Stir in crushed tomatoes, ketchup (if using), tomato paste, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning. Set aside.
• Make faux béchamel:
  In a saucepan, warm milk and butter over medium-low heat (~5 minutes).
  Whisk in cornstarch until thickened (be careful not to burn the milk at the bottom of the pan).
  Remove from heat and whisk in eggs one at a time until smooth, stirring vigorously to not cook the eggs.
  Optional: strain through a sieve if eggs cooked slightly during mixing.
  
• Assemble pastitsio:
  If you haven’t already, arrange half the pasta on the bottom of the pan. Try to make it even height as best you can.
  Layer ground beef over pasta.
  Top with remaining pasta.
  Pour béchamel sauce over the top. Sprinkle with Parmesan if desired.
  
• Bake:
  Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.
  Let rest 10 minutes before serving.
  Make-ahead option: Assemble in advance and refrigerate. Bring to room temp (~30 minutes) before baking. You can also reheat leftovers in the oven.
• Enjoy your dinny!