Pastitcio - Greek Baked Pasta with ground beef

A baked pasta from Greece. Creamy pasta with ground beef, tomato sauce and cheese. A bit fatty but it nice and delicious and almost everyone from around the world enjoyed this.(I think)

The first thing You must do is boiling the pasta, in Greece we can search the special pasta for this as Pasticio Pasta but if you cannot find it just grab penne it will be similar.

Ingredients:

250 grams pasta (half 500 grams pack)

The Cream:
1 cup all purpose flour
1,5 liter milk
salt & pepper
50 grams butter
1 egg (big)

The filling;
500 grams minced ground beef (lamb optional)
1-2 pcs minced fresh tomatoes or
1 pack 100 grams tomato sauce/juice classic (pummaro brand i prefer)
1 pcs red onions
1-2 pcs cloves garlic (optional)
1/2 cup red wine (the sweet red wine will be nice)
salt & pepper
olive oil
a pinch of oregano (optional)

1/4 cup of parmesan cheese or in Greece can find Kefalotiri for optional cheese

Baking dish size; 25 X 35 X 6 cm

The Preparations:

First thing first is boiling the pasta until it soft (as you like) ; soft like the Italian or softer then that. then dry it (i mean really dry, try not to left any water as during the baking it will have more liquid at the bottom)

Chop onion & garlic.

Cook the meat using pan in medium heat, fried the meats with olive oil and stir it until soft then start fill in the onions & garlic until it turns transparent and then throw the wine and let it evaporated.
After that start fill in the tomato and stir until all mix and ready.

For the cream, melt the butter in the medium saucepan with low heat then fill in the milk after whisk it with the eggs and flour then stir it in saucepan until no lump and starting boiled.

For the baking dish; brush it with olive oil then transfer the pasta for the first layer, the second layer the meat mixture then the last is the cream and some cheese on top to cover the cream (optional).

Baked in 200C heat around 35-40 minutes, removed from oven. Cool it around 15 minutes, if not it will really soft and liquid, a bit difficult to cut it.

Better serve after cooling down but not too cold, just until a bit hard; around 10-15 mnts.

Hope this recipe clear enough for you, if you have any questions you can contact me.

Happy baking.