Our Home Place Pastitsio
Tootsie Nelson’s It’s All Greek to Me cooking class left us hungry for more flavors from Greece! Our recipe was inspired by one from Ronald Johnson, the late American poet and cookbook author who briefly taught creative writing at the University of Kentucky while Wendell Berry was on leave.
For the meat sauce –
olive oil
1 pound My Home Place Meat ground Rose Beef
1 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup chopped canned tomatoes, drained
½ cup dry white wine
Salt and ground pepper
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons minced parsley
Making the meat sauce –
Sauté meat in a doot of olive oil in a Dutch oven until it just loses its raw color and starts to brown a bit. Add the onion and garlic. When the onion is soft, add tomatoes, wine, salt, pepper, cinnamon, allspice, oregano and bay leaf.
Cook covered over low heat for 15 minutes. Uncover pot and simmer for an additional 15 minutes, adding the parsley toward the end. All the juices should be cooked away by the end of the second 15 minutes. Remove bay leaf.
For the Bechamel –
½ cup butter
½ cup flour
4 cups milk, heated
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
While the meat sauce is cooking, make the Bechamel –
Melt butter in a large saucepan and add the flour. Stir until well combined. Whisk in the hot milk and cook, stirring until the sauce is smooth and thickened. Add salt, nutmeg and 1 cup of cheese and set aside.
To finish –
1 pound ziti
2 cups total grated Parmesan and Romano blended together
3 local eggs, separated
Fresh breadcrumbs, about 1 cup total
Melted butter
Minced fresh herbs (oregano, parsley, basil, etc)
And cook the ziti –
Finally, cook the ziti in plenty of well-salted boiling water until barely done. Remember it’s going to be cooked some more. Drain and set aside.
One more step before assembly!
Separate the eggs and place 1 egg white in one bowl and 2 in another. Whisk all the egg yolks into the slightly cooled Bechamel sauce until smooth. Lightly whip 1 egg white and stir it into the meat sauce. Lightly whip the other 2 egg whites and add to the cooked pasta. Stir ¾ cup of cheese into the pasta.
You’re ready to put it all together!
Preheat the oven to 350℉. Butter a 9x13” lasagna pan or Pyrex baking dish and sprinkle the bottom of it with breadcrumbs, saving a few breadcrumbs for the top. Layer half the pasta in the pan and cover with half the Bechamel. Spoon all of the meat sauce on top of the Bechamel. Cover the meat sauce with the remaining pasta and top the pasta with the rest of the Bechamel. Sprinkle the last of the grated cheese on top along with any remaining breadcrumbs. Drizzle melted butter over the surface and bake, uncovered, for 40-45 minutes, until puffed and golden.
Remove from the oven and let sit about 15 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh herbs!
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