Wednesday, October 03, 2012

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.



47 comments:

  1. I am so sorry that you deleted your account on Goodreads (ugh. I am banging my head on the table for you too.

    I have always wanted to make pastitsio. I suddenly feel inspired.

    Velva

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pastitsio is my boyfriend's favorite food! Seriously. I might have to make this for him.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looks so good. Fantastic flavors in there, I need to make this, we've never had pastitsio before.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  12. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  13. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  15. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  16. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  17. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  18. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  19. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  20. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  21. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  22. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  23. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  24. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  25. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  26. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  27. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  28. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  29. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  30. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  31. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  32. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  33. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  34. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  35. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  36. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  37. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  38. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  39. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  40. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  41. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  42. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  43. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  44. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  45. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  46. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  47. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Welcome and thank you so much for visiting. If I don't answer you here I will get back to you on your blog. Also have had to switch to approving comments due to some SPAM lately. Alas...

It's been a good run...........