Pastitsio and a Bone-Headed Action

A few weeks back I read Harlot's Sauce: Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss and Greece. Then I wanted pastitsio. Here is my take, from a magazine recipe, on this delicious Greek dish.

By the way, my review of this memoir may be found at Novel Meals.

Also important to add is.....in a bone-headed impetuous action I deleted my account at Goodreads. Brilliant. So all those book reviews are gone, as is my friend's list, wish list for books, my entries for giveaways. Like I said...brilliant. (shakes her head, looking sad)

Some reviews I may recreate. If we were friends on that site...my bad.

Here is the pastitsio.



Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil
· 1 medium onion, diced
· 1 pound ground lamb or beef
· 4 cloves garlic, chopped
· 1 cup dry red wine
· 1 14 1/2 ounce can diced tomatoes
· 1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
· 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
· 3/4 teaspoon salt
· 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
· 3 teaspoons fresh oregano, chopped
· 1 pound ziti
· 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
· 3 cups 1% milk
· 1 cup reduced-fat crumbled feta cheese
· 2 eggs, beaten

Directions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boiling.

In a large, straight-sided skillet, heat 1 tbsp of the oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook 3 minutes, until slightly softened. Add lamb and cook 8 to 10 minutes, until meat is browned, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Stir in garlic and cook 1 minute. Add wine; bring to a simmer and cook 3 minutes, scraping brown bits off the bottom of the skillet. Stir in tomatoes, tomato sauce, cinnamon and 1/2 tsp of the salt. Bring to a simmer and cook 6 minutes, or until sauce has thickened. Stir in mint and oregano; set aside.

Meanwhile, cook ziti 2 minutes less than package directions in lightly salted boiling water. Drain and stir into meat sauce.

Heat remaining 3 tbsp oil in a medium pot set over medium heat. Add flour; whisk for 1 minute. Whisk in milk;
bring to a simmer and cook 5 to 7 minutes, until thickened. Stir in cheese and remaining 1/4 tsp salt. Remove from heat, cool 1 minute and slowly whisk in eggs.




To assemble:

Transfer meat and noodle mixture to a 13 x 9 x 2-inch oven-safe baking dish. Press noodles with the back of a spatula to make a flat layer. Pour cheese-egg mixture on top. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 to 55 minutes, or until top layer is set.

This was extremely moist, delicious and we'd have it again. Oh yeah.

I will be sending this to CreamPuffs in Venice for her roundup of Magazine Monday. This is from Family Circle magazine, September 2012 issue.