🍝 Pastitsio

Name: Pastitsio
Total time: 120 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Greece
Ingredients: 500 g pastitsio pasta or bucatini; 600 g ground beef; 1 onion, chopped; 400 g chopped tomatoes; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 2 tbsp olive oil; Béchamel: 60 g butter, 60 g flour, 800 ml milk, 2 eggs, nutmeg

Origin: Greece

555kcal

per serving · 300 g

185kcal

per 100 g

30 gProtein10 g / 100 g

26 gFat8.5 g / 100 g

51 gCarbs17 g / 100 g

Pastitsio is a Greek baked pasta dish built in layers: tubular pasta at the base, a minced beef sauce with tomato and cinnamon in the middle, and a thick blanket of creamy béchamel on top. Baked until golden, it is cut into neat squares that hold their shape. It is a staple of Sunday lunches, tavernas and celebrations.

Diets

✓

No porkfor halal, the meat must be halal-slaughtered

Not vegetarianbecause of: ground beef

Not veganbecause of: ground beef, béchamel sauce

Contains glutenbecause of: pasta, béchamel sauce

Contains dairybecause of: béchamel sauce

Not keto17 g carbs per 100 g

Allergens

Contains (in a typical recipe):

⚠ Gluten ⚠ Eggs ⚠ Milk

What it is made of

pastaground beefbéchamel saucetomatocinnamon

Recipe

8 servings120 min

Ingredients

500 g pastitsio pasta or bucatini
600 g ground beef
1 onion, chopped
400 g chopped tomatoes
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp olive oil
Béchamel: 60 g butter, 60 g flour, 800 ml milk, 2 eggs, nutmeg

Method

Brown the beef with onion in olive oil, add tomatoes and cinnamon, and simmer 30 minutes until thick.
Cook the pasta until just firm and drain.
For the béchamel, cook butter and flour for a minute, whisk in the milk until thick, season with nutmeg, then beat in the eggs off the heat.
Layer half the pasta in a baking dish, spread over the meat, then the remaining pasta.
Pour the béchamel on top and bake at 180 °C for 45 minutes until golden; rest 20 minutes before cutting.

How to make it lighter

Use lean ground beef and drain the fat after browning.
Make the béchamel layer thinner, or use semi-skimmed milk for it.
Cut 10 squares instead of 8 and serve with a large salad.

History

Baked pasta pies came to Greece through Italian, especially Venetian, influence, and the name echoes the Italian 'pasticcio'. The modern béchamel-topped version is often credited to chef Nikolaos Tselementes, whose 20th-century cookbooks shaped Greek home cooking.

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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →