Niki Louca from My Greek Kitchen shares her favourite recipe for Makaronia tou fournou (pastitsio) with The Greek Herald. You can follow her on Instagram @mygreekkitchen for more!
This dish is a favourite among young and old. Depending on the size of the baking dish used, the quantities will vary. The example provided is based on a baking dish measuring 40cm long, 28cm wide and 8–10cm deep – roughly equivalent to about 1¼ A4 sheets in size, with a minimum depth of 5cm.
For this size you will need:
Pasta
- 700 grams of tubular pasta – uncooked
- 4 large eggs
- approx. 1 cup haloumi cheese grated (available from supermarkets), or parmesan tasty cheese grated.
Bolognaise sauce
- 1 -1.5kg of mincemeat (if you prefer a thinner layer of sauce use less)
- 1 large onion
- salt to taste
- oregano
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ½ cup parsley (optional)
- 1/3 cup tomato paste
- Water – approx. ½ cup to dilute tomato paste
Béchamel sauce
- 1 litre milk
- 4 heaped tablespoons corn flour
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 4 eggs
- salt to taste
- ¼ of a cup bread crumbs
- cinnamon powder
- 5 tablespoons grated haloumi cheese or kefalograviera or parmesan
Method:
Bolognaise sauce: Start this first as it takes the longest and you can do other things whilst it’s cooking.
- Dice onion finely and sauté in a heavy based saucepan with the olive oil. Once translucent, add mince and brown. This may take a while, and it is important to keep stirring it every now and then, to break down the clumps of mince. Once mince is browned, add the oregano and salt. Stir and cook for a further 1 minutes. Add the tomato paste and water – stir well. Allow any juices to cook down. Once the sauce is close to finish add your parsley and stir through.
- Whilst your sauce is cooking, start preparing your pasta. In a big pot, boil water and add some salt. Add the pasta and cook till al dente. Discard water and leave pasta in the pot you cooked it in. In a separate small bowl, gently beat the 4 large eggs with a fork. Stir those into the pasta with the grated haloumi and stir making sure pasta is well covered. This process will make pasta gel together and not fall apart when serving.
- Pour 2/3 of the pasta mixture into the base of your baking tray and level it. Then add your bolognaise sauce on top of the pasta, and on top of that the remainder 1/3 of the pasta mixture. This will bring it pretty much to the top of baking dish.
- At this stage preheat your oven to 180C.
- For the béchamel sauce put the butter in a saucepan till it melts and add the corn flour. Stir continuously and add a little milk to create smooth paste. Once that is done, add the remainder of the milk. Beat the eggs slightly and add to the milk mixture before milk gets hot. Add your salt and keep stirring. Do not leave this alone as it will stick and burn. You need to stir continuously till it thickens. Your gas mark should be on medium not high. Once the sauce is ready, pour over the pasta and level out. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the entire dish, then sprinkle your haloumi cheese and lastly the cinnamon.
- Bake in the oven till golden brown.
Note: This can all be prepared the day before and cooked the following day. It’s not ideal to freeze as the pasta waters down.
Enjoy with a nice green salad.
Niki Louca runs cooking classes in Melbourne. For more or to book classes visit My Greek Kitchen at www.mygreekkitchen.com.au or Instagram @mygreekkitchen. You can email Niki at: niki@mygreekkitchen.com.au.
 with The Greek Herald.){kind=link}