Pastitso Aka Greek Lasagna Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cook pasta and drain.
• While pasta is cooking, brown meat in heavy skillet, add onion and garlic and cook until soft.
• Mix in cinnamon and tomato sauce.
• In a saucepan, melt butter, whisk in flour and cook 1 minute, whisk in milk and simmer 20 minutes.
• Add beaten eggs and 1/4 cup parmesan to white sauce.
• In a buttered two quart casserole dish, add half pasta, top with meat mixture, add the rest of the pasta.
• Pour white sauce over the top.
• Sprinkle with remaining parmesan cheese.
• Bake 60 minutes.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• In a large skillet: melt 2 T butter, add onion and garlic and saute' until golden.
• Add remaining butter and the crumbled ground beef. Cook until no longer pink.
• Add remaining ingredients to the meat mixture and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Mixture should be thick; set aside.
• MAKE THE WHITE SAUCE:.
• Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Whisk in the flour and cook for a 60 seconds.
• Gradually add the warm milk, whisking constantly, cook until thick and smooth. Add remaining ingredients to the sauce. Continue to stir and cook over low heat until all is thickened. Add more milk if too thick.
• In a separate bowl, beat eggs and add 1/2 cup of the sauce to the eggs to temper them.
• Whisk the egg mixture into the saucepan until well blended.
• In the mean time, BOIL PASTA.
• In a large stock pot, add salt to boiling water;.
• Add macaroni, stir gently and cook uncovered until tender, per package suggestions.
• Drain and rinse under cool water.
• Drain well and place in a large bowl, add 1/4 C melted butter, nutmeg, sherry if using, beaten eggs and grated cheese.
• Put half of the noodle mixture into a greased 9x9x2 baking pan (I used 7x12 glass casserole) a arranging the long noodles the length of the pan in straight rows.
• Top with all of the meat mixture.
• Cover the meat with the remaining half of the noodles.
• Pour the white sauce over the macaroni and bake for 25 minutes or until the top is delicately browned. Bake longer if necessary to heat through.
• NOTE: If you prep this ahead, and do not bake immediately, add more baking time. If refrigerated: bring to room temperature for 1 hour, bake for 30- 45 minutes.

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, saute onions in butter until opaque. Crumble beef into saucepan and brown.well. Drain off the fat.
• Add salt, pepper, tomato sauce, water and sugar. Stir well and simmer 35-40 minutes. At this point there should be very little water in the sauce.
• Remove from heat and cool. The meat sauce can be made ahead of time.
• In a saucepan, melt butter and then add in the flour, stiring constantly using a wire whisk. Gradually add the warm milk, stirring vigorously until sauce thickens. Add nutmeg, remove from heat and cool.
• When ready to use meat sauce, add half of the bread crumbs and 1 1/4 cups parmesan cheese. Stir well and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Cook the macaroni per package directions in boiling salted water until almost al dente. Drain well, stir in the olive oil and set aside.
• Butter an 11x17 inch baking pan and sprinkle with 2 tbsp bread crumbs. Spread half of the macaroni across the baking pan and sprinkle 1/2 cup cheese over top.
• Beat the eggs in a bowl using a wire whisk and add in 1/2 cup of the cooled bechamel sauce. Stir well and then add egg mixture into the rest of the bechamel sauce. Add the cheese and stir well.
• Cover macaroni layer with meat sauce. Pour half of the bechamel sauce over the meat and cover with remaining macaroni. Sprinkle 1/2 cup cheese over macaroni layer.
• Top macaroni layer with remaining bechamel sauce and top with remaining bread crumbs and cheese.
• Cook in the oven on a center rack for 50 minutes or until golden brown. Let sit 20 minutes to firm up before cutting and serving.
• This casserole freezes well and is easy to reheat. Place the frozen pastitsio, covered loosely with foil, in a 350 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours or until heated through.