Pastitsio Greek Pasta Bake | The Good Stuff with Mary Berg

Alex Page shows us how to make Pastitsio – the iconic Greek pasta bake – with layers of delicious noodles and a rich nutmeg spiked meat sauce topped with a luxurious layer of bechamel.

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Uh, so I’ve started off uh we’ve just browned some ground lamb. Okay. In a pan. I’m not going to lie, I love uh like ground lamb is probably the way that I buy lamb the most. Like how often are you making like a fancy little lamb chop big joint? Yeah. Or that. Yeah. Okay. Then we season it with salt and pepper. And then all we’re going to do, we just kind of remove this to a bowl so we can cook off our vegetables and our spices. Okay. Right on. I mean, I guess you could actually just keep it in there. You know what I mean? I can We’re making a recipe a little more interesting, right? I think the wonder of a casserole is it all comes out in the wash. You know what I mean? As soon as you scoop it out, it might get a little sloppy, but it’s going to taste delicious. So, you know, you do you. Yeah. Now, this one, I’m not going to promise you this one there’s a bit of preparation in getting it together. It’s a It takes time, but it’s not a ton of effort, but it does take time. Yeah. This is a good Sunday, you know, Sunday project. Yeah. Get yourself a nice bottle of wine as we like to call them. A whole bottle of wine. Alex Paige, how’s this going to go? You put some in here, you know. So, we are going to start off now. Uh we’ve added in our diced onion and some garlic. And then uh for our seasoning, bay leaf. You always do a bay leaf. You are doing you are doing the most for bay leaves. I like bay leaf. You know, I do too, but I’m always when I forget it, I’m like, did I miss it? You know what I mean? You know how you can tell it adds flavor is you put it with some potatoes and boil them and taste the potatoes. You can really taste the bay leaf so you know it’s actually a little bit of lemon. Yes. Okay. Our spices that we’ve gone in with dried oregano, ground cinnamon. Oh, it smells amazing. Smell that already. Oh, I love that cinnamon. Ground clove. I put a little bit of ground allspice. I don’t know that that’s like traditional, but I love a clove and an allspice though. It gives you a really kind of smoky flavor. It’s not going to taste like a cinnamon bun. It’s just going to give you warmth, you know? Yes. Uh tomato paste. Beautiful. Going in. We got to love it. We just start to cook all that down. I’m just going to pass that to you. Of course. Thank you. Are you smell that already? Are you a can or squeezy tube? Oh, good question. You’re a squeezeller. I’m so fancy. Yeah. Because then you can use what you need. I know. But it’s so funny when I’m looking at the tube and I’m looking at the can and I’m like, the tube is five times more expensive, but they’re the same size. I know. But it’s convenient. It’s funny. It’s the same as like that. A tube of that and a tube of anchovy paste. You got flavor for days. Total. Oh, what just went in? I delazed with some dry white wine. This is what I mean. You’re getting your bottle of wine. You have some for you and a little bit there. Some for there. Uh, beef broth. Yep. You could use vegetable broth or chicken broth as well. And then our strained tomatoes. The J is on. Okay. Our lamb goes back into the pan. Okay. And then this is just a simmering situation. So, this is going to go on, you know, I’d say like 45 to an hour. This is one of those things. This is why you make it on a Sunday cuz then you get to be home while it’s making your house smell amazing. Delicious. Yeah. And this is going to really set into a nice ragu. Okay. Fantastic. Next we make the besmell. Okay. But with this ragu, you could do a double batch. Freeze half of it. Have it ready. Yeah, this is good. So I’ve already I’ve already started the bashimal. We’ve cooked uh butter and flour together to start our r. And then we slowly add in some milk. Milk. Milk. Oh, what%? What%? Whole milk. Okay. And then once it’s thickened up, pardon me, Jonno. I was going Alex Paige loves the measurement. Two cups. I’ll put half cup, but this looks like they know me in the back. I think so. I think so. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was like a blizzard. We go with a little bit of nutmeg. Beautiful. Love that. We’ll give that a stir. Now, I’m going to do this is definitely not traditional, okay? But some cooked uh squash, butternut squash. So, you could roast this, you could boil it, you could steam it. Could you do the frozen one? I Yeah, you could. I would make sure you strain it to get some of the moisture. Whatever. Whatever blows your hair back. However, however, however you want to cook your squash, go ahead. So, that’s going to go in. I think this adds like a nice texture and color. It does. It gives it a little bit of like a a I feel like casserles are a cold weather food and this is that like full cold weather. Sweater weather. Sweater weather. It’s the sweater weather of the dishes. Yeah. And then we’re going to blend that squash in. Mhm. This is a thrill. Isn’t this thrilling? This is a thrill. I love this. And while while we blend it, I have two eggs. Okay. Uh yolks. We’ve separated them. So, we’re going to just add our yolks. Does that kind of help obviously bring a little richness, but also just kind of uh solidify this, make it a little bit more kind of custardy? Yes. So, this is going to help it set when you bake it in the oven. Also, this lamb ray goo smells out of control. It smells so like together. Oh my gosh. Creamy with like a tomato situation. You’re not going to be mad about hanging out of your stove for that. It smells really good. Oh, that’s beautiful. That’s hot. Can I give that a taste? Yeah, absolutely. Looks so nice. I don’t think we’d put salt and pepper, but let’s give it a taste. Oo. Is that nice? Can we have a little a little bit of salt there? Yeah. Yeah. That is delicious. I’m not mad at that. All right. I’m having a great day. So, now it’s time to uh assemble. Okay. Perfect. So, we have bukatini pasta. This is not traditionally No. But the one similar very similar. The other one has a a larger hole like it’s almost like a macaroni that’s straight and long. Tubular. Yeah. Tubular. Yeah. But it’s hard to find, but Bukatini you can pretty much readily find. So I have cooked that and then we’re just going to toss it. We saved the egg whites. Oh, okay. So cook this till like just before al dente. Okay. And then the egg whites when you toss it. If you just toss them with that little bit of egg white, a we’re not wasting anything. Yeah. And B, it’s just going to help things hold together on the bottom of your dish. That’s really smart. It gives that little bit of kind of protein to grab everything. Every neighbor gets to know its neighbor, you know. Yes. Our casserole dish. I’ve sprayed it. And then we’re going to take some Italian breadcrumbs. Oh, this is fun. Is this nor is this like tradition? I do this with a lot of casserles. Oh, okay. Got really excited there. This would be really good on a like a lasagna, too. It gives that little crunchy texture. Helps it cut out and then like go all the way around as well. Gosh, I love this. Isn’t that great? Yeah. And then our noodles, they kind of go as best as you can like straight. Is it almost something that you Yeah, it’s almost like you’re brushing them out. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if I was doing this, I would maybe take a little more time to make them look, you know, I know we said casserles aren’t cute, but we can try, right? We can try. So, you add your your noodles there, and then it’s just all about layering everything. Okay, cool. So, we have our ragu. I’m going to hold this, Mary, and then we’re going to do Do you want to just like like a spoony spoon? Oh, we’ll just do we’ll just do a pour pour. I love this energy. Wow. Now, we would have cooked this. Now, this this would have been reduced, so it would be uh like very thick. Very thick and almost hold a layer, which is a dream. Yeah. And then this smells so good. Okay. Oh my gosh. And then we did. Let’s just Oh yes. Come on. Oh, get out of here. We’re not playing around. We’re not playing around. So once we have that, do we do anything on top or we just go on? We’re doing some cheese. Of course, it’s Alex Paige. We got to do some parmesan regiano. Of course. This is like real stick to your ribs kind of. Oh, this is sticking to your ribs. Oh yeah. Yeah. This is This is good. So that’s going to go in the oven 350. I would say like an hour. Okay. You know, till it’s golden brown, bubbling. Beautiful. All right. Oh my gosh. Oh, look at it back there again. I keep getting the sneak peeks, everybody. We’re having a good day. Look at his face. Look at how excited he is. All right. Okay. So, this is the thing. Doesn’t look like much right now. No, this is the thing that’s great about this one. It looks right now kind It’s just beautiful, golden, but then you cut it. So, you really want to make sure uh if you rest it, the longer you can rest it or even if you made it the day ahead of time, uh the besimmo will really set up nicely. Otherwise, it’ll just be a little bit creamy. But, I mean, I’m not mad at that either. Yeah. Right. I’m going to get some forks. Let’s see what we’re doing. The crispy edge. Look at that edge. Oh my gosh. With that beautiful noodle. And then to finish that up, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Mary, just you’re going right into the pot again. Little more cheese. Little bit of parmes. This is absolutely delightful. Hey, Mary here. What did you think? Drop your comments below and don’t forget to like and subscribe for more of the good stuff.