INCREDIBLE Pastitsio (Greek Lasagna)

Pastitsio (Greek Lasagna) is truly as stunning in appearance as it is in deliciousness. Layers of Greek tubular pasta topped with a savory thick meat sauce and then a dense Greek bechamel and baked to perfection. Perfect for New Year’s feast or any time of the year for that mater!

OTHER GREEK RECIPES TO TRY:
Authentic Spanakopita (Spinach Pie):

Chicken Gryo with Homemade Tzatziki Sauce:

PASTITSIO INGREDIENTS:
For the Meat Sauce:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 lbs ground beef, 85% lean
1 cup red wine
2 cups crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 beef bouillon cube, crushed
2 bay leaves
1 whole cinnamon stick
Pinch of ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1½ tsp Kosher salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

For the Greek Bechamel:
8 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
4½ cups whole milk, warmed
Pinch of nutmeg
1 tsp Kosher salt
1½ cups Kefalotryi Greek cheese (or Parmesan or Romano)
2 egg yolks (save the whites for the pasta)

For the Pasta and Assembly:
1 lb Pastitsio No. 2 pasta, or bucatini or penne, cooked al dente
2 egg whites
1½ cups Kefalotryi Greek cheese (or Parmesan or Romano) – divided

FULL RECIPE:

Pastitsio (Greek Lasagna)

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Today we’re doing comfort food Greek style layers of pasta an incredible meat sauce and topped with a creamy Bell oh every bite is Zeus approved Zeus approved that’s good I think that tops you oh my gosh I’m Chris and I’m Wesley by Adonis l oh that’s sweet oh I’m so

Excited God I know you you are so today we we when we’re filming it’s real close to New Year’s we love we are waiting for it though the clocks are ticking it get out so we love cooking foods from all around the world that are traditional um

Dur during New Year’s and uh so we have some dear friends who are Greek and we love our Greek friends we have great memories of Greek food in New York City it’s just everything about it is great so so wonderful pasta and correct this is if we’re wrong we’re not Greek but

Pasta is a popular dish to to celebrate the coming of the New Year fabulous neighbors app Paris kopus are Greek and uh they are they they’re they they inform us well of of we have pretty good sources I mean I we do I’m going on this one I’m going to

Say well you talk about but anyway okay so I’ve got two tablespoons of olive oil that I’ve heated over medium heat in a nice uh size Skillet here and then to that I added one chopped onion and one carrot that I chopped I chopped that carrot up in my uh food processor just

To make it easy but uh you could do slices as well we’re going to cook this for about four minutes until it gets nice and soft okay so now I’ve got three cloves of garlic that I’ve minced that I’m going to add to the party and just

Let this cook until it so I think P pastio has become one of my new favorite oh it’s so good it’s so it’s sort of like I mean people refer to it as the Greek lasagna and there’s a lot of similarities obviously there’s pasta there’s a meat sauce but there’s some

Distinct differences that really set it apart which I I think make it super special so now we’re going to add beef I got 2 lbs of ground beef two pounds of ground beef this is 85% lean go ahead um and I just cuz I like a little a little

Bit of fat in there and we’ll drain off any excess um but 2 lbs is what you need I have in doing all my research some some folks um cook with a combination of pork and beef you can do lamb that would seem logical wow but beef from what I

Understand is is traditionally what is used in uh this dish so who are we to argue with beef okay we’re going to cook this until it’s no longer pink okay so this is uh no longer starting to smell good smelling good so uh this rendered

Some grease so I just all I do is I I don’t like all that in the meat sauce so I just tilt My Pan sideways uh use a big spoon to uh spoon it out and leave a little bit in there cuz there’s some flavor there okay now we’ve got a cup of

That’s a half a cup and this is another half a cup of good quality good quality good quality it’s true the rule is if you’re not going to drink it then don’t cook don’t use it in your cooking right so now um one of the okay so one of the

Important distinctions of this meat sauce versus say a bologan or something that you would use in an Italian lasagna is that this is a it’s a tighter sauce it’s not real like there’s it’s not Saucy let’s say that it’s not like you Saucy um listen here I know and that’s

And that is it’s just the it’s the the consistency it also it really helps you get those beautiful Square you you saw the you know it doesn’t go running all over the place um and so and it sits nicely on top of the pasta it does it

Really really does and so we’re going to want this wine to impart that flavor and uh but really pretty much cook completely out EV it’s going to cook out pretty much all of the alcohol if you do not want to cook with alcohol with wine at all you can just use beef

Okay we’re going to cook this for a couple more minutes until it’s evaporated okay now you see most of that uh wine is gone as evaporated in that smell it’s still smelling kind of like you know like we’re building a traditional Boles um but now we’re going

To change things up a little bit not drastically but you’ll see first we’ve got a/4 cup of good quality tomato paste and again that just helps it’s going to help make a thicker sauce is which we want I’m just going to stir that around

Just a little bit just to kind of get it going um and then I’ve got two cups of puree or crushed tomatoes you could use tomato puree um going to give it that delicious uh tomato flavor and now I’m just to bump up the flavors I’ve got a

Beef bullon cube oh a beef bullon I love a bullon cube oh um sorry oh gosh need anything I tell you it’s dangerous cooking with the you never know what the that come okay so now you see that’s already it’s not like it’s not super runny and it’s not super it’s a good

Consisten we’re going to keep on cooking this until it really cooks down now we’re going to put in two bay leaves and then this is now this is where we’re going to uh deviate from the traditional bowon this is a cinnamon stick I love that I know now be careful with these

Seasonings right here that we’re adding the seasoning because a little really goes a long way and it’s easy to overdo it and you don’t want to do that this is A4 teaspoon that I’m adding I’m just doing them right out of here you don’t mind me using this these are ground

Cloves it gives such a warmth and a hint of sweetness to the to the sauce and this is a/4 teaspoon of all spice if you re now that cinnamon stick is going to impart some uh definitely some cinnamon flavor uh if you really love the taste

Of cinnamon you could do a/4 teaspoon of cinnamon we’ve tried that but we think um this is just a really nice nice when the neighbors made it for us uh a while back I was like wait a minute is that cinnamon in here he’s like yeah he’s

Like little goes a long way um it was so good though okay so you want to add some salt we’re going to do oh yeah let me do something that would be great that would really be helpful we’re going to do a teaspoon and a half of this good old

Kosher salt and then we’re going to do a teaspoon of ground black pepper oh I’m exhausted that’s well you’ve been working so hard so now we’re just going to let this simmer and again till there’s a little excess um liquid in there and but that’s okay that we’re

Going to we want these flavors to really meld anyway but it doesn’t take long probably 15 to 20 minutes and it’s it’s good it’s going to be good okay moving right along we’re going to keep we’re going to make the bashall this is a stick of butter 8 tablespoons that I’m

Melting over medium heat and let’s finish talking of butter that meat yes talking about stick of butter oh look at that meat y’all it is oh how I love how how we cook that until it like we said it really reduced down and most of the don’t eat it no it

Smells so good it smells so good so U you can’t taste it if you feel like it needs maybe a little more salt you can do that we tasted it and you want just a hint of the cinnamon you don’t want it overpowering so we got literally a pinch

And we added another little a pinch of cinnamon it’s really a matter ofast C this and then cover back up you don’t want it to dry out you want that meat to be not Saucy and runny but you want it to be moist yes I’m going to cover this

Up again and then let’s talk about that let’s talk cheese cheese the Greek cheese this is Calo graa I’m sure I pronounced that horribly so that these these terms are Greek To Us literally and so we have to apologize for mutilating them but this is Greek uh

This is traditional well go ahead what and the other the other one that’s traditionally used Calo Tyra Calo Tyra it’s sorry you see the the pronunciation those are what are commonly sheep’s milk um the gra Carlo I can’t even say it I just I can only graa that’s it he’s better at

Pronouncing well who knows and so that one is a they’re both sheep’s milk that one’s a little less salty and but they’re both commonly used in this dish it’s and they taste a little like parmesan they they’re very much like parmesan well the closest is to parmesan

They’re if you’re here in the States they’re hard to find and you can order it online but it’s not cheap it’s a little it’s a little pricey so a perfectly good substitution is a gr parmesan or Romano now I so we’re building as we’re talking we are

Building this mush Mell So to that melted butter I’ve added a cup of all-purpose flour and what are we making okay so this is going to be a nice thick R um okay so love it this cheese um is going to be used use throughout this wonderful uh pastizio

And we’re going to use it in the bash we’re going to put a little on the pasta and then we’re also going to top it top it yes y’all this it’s it is the it’s it’s so good so that that is we’re going to need that in just a moment and this

Is 4 and 1/2 cups of whole milk go with whole uh please and we just to help things along to help make this R and to make the bshm I heated it on the stove don’t get it like boil but just when it’s warm it makes it easier for this to

Come together you need to cook this R for about a minute uh just to cook out that raw flour taste and then what we put it in this in in some sort of a like this is just a measure you’re talking about this you have to cook out that

That you have to cook for an hour for a minute and then I’m back to that the reason we transferred it into something like this is just you have to pour it into here gradually and um that just makes it easier rather than using so but

Don’t have it too hot in glass cuz it’ll break okay I’m all can I start so now we’re going if you have a helper it helps and just do a little gradual like maybe a third of it tell me when you’re good you’re good and it’s going to start off really lumpy

And it’s going to seem like this is not right but um it it is and you’re just going to keep going and it’s going to take a little bit for it to get Incorporated it’s going to get smoothed out okay now go ahead and add some everything’s going to be wonderful go

Ahead and add World Peace yes there will we’ll have the Olympics um that’s good that’s good now then it gets a little it’s hard not to Sosh around the milk when you’re doing this do you want a big one no a bigger no this is good

Just keep keep working that R into the into the milk and it’ll eventually it will eventually uh smooth out you want to just keep doing this until it does get nice and smooth okay go ahead and do the rest isn’t this fun this is the most

In I think this now what we’re making here rest yeah go ahead and do the rest what we’re doing here is this this it’s a Greek mus smell and this is another very distinctly unique um aspect of this dish a lot of times in like Italian Sicilian lasagnas there’s going to be a

Bshm that sort of acts as like the glue of the different parts and it’s just a thin layer and I love cooking with it um but this it literally makes its own Heavenly layer on top it reminds me of which it’s not but it reminds me of like

The top of a shepherd’s pie it does except it’s not mashed potatoes okay I’m going to continue working this until we get it nice and smooth and then it’s going to start to thicken okay now you see this has gotten really nice and thick and it’s just beautiful um okay

Yeah so now and yeah I’m going to take this off the heat now now we’ve got a cup and a half of this grated beautiful Greek sheep SM cheese just dump it in there oh okay I like to I know you like to make a show give a little finesse

There we go wow we graded that finally didn’t we we did I tell you my arms are still okay and then we’re going to that we’re going to add a teaspoon of salt Jinx huh Jinx owe me a coke oh um okay and now this adds another depth of

Just beautiful flavor we’re going to get if you’ve got if you can get your hands on some fresh nutmeg um and it’s sort of like cinnamon it goes like you can be it goes a long way I know but it’s you also um so this is fresh up mag if you’re

What are you doing I was tapping it oh here okay you want a little more than that so um we’re going to probably husband well take it over well I’m just we want to get this before dinner okay I’m going to say that’s probably it’s a healthy pinch of nutmeg um if you’re

Just using ground nutmeg okay so now we’re going to let this just sit for about 5 minutes and cool up just a little bit and then we’re going to add two egg yolks to it incorporate that and that’s going to help this mus mows really set and make that beautiful top

Layer and then we do the pasta and then we put it together and then we bake it and then we eat it and you won’t be another year older I promise okay on to component number three well first let’s quick let’s talk about that finished component number

Onece and thick this is some thick bshm and how did it get so thick two egg yolks yeah so we uh we let it cool for just about 3 to five minutes and then we quickly stirred in the two egg yolks you don’t want those egg yolks to scramble

And and anyway and and that’s really nice and thick and then when it bakes it’s just going to be beautiful we saved the egg whites make sure you save the egg whites because we’re going to toss the pasta with it and we’ll talk about that in just a moment here’s the pasta

Just showing everybody real quick that so this is um it’s pasta number it’s it’s pastio pasta It’s number two it’s a butini number two um we again this is not something you can easily find in the states unless you’ve got like a Greek market then you definitely can uh you

See but it’s tubular and it’s Hollow just like butini is but it’s a got it’s a little wider and um so obviously these this fun this is not near as expensive to order online and I’ve got links to it um as the cheese is however you can absolutely substitute bucatini you can substitute

Pen and you’re going to have just wonderful results as well it’s it’s all great so now you want to let this cook until it’s al dente and we’re using our nice oblong Dutch oven just because it’s sort of it holds the the pasta very comfortably um but anyway you don’t want

To overcook it because it’s when it goes in the oven it will continue to cook a little bit longer so um our package which is all in Greek which I love um we were able to see that it said that it it’s 8 to 10 minutes so we’re going to

Let this go probably about 7 minutes then we’re going to drain it toss it then we’re gonna build it okay so this pasta went about six minutes um just do a do a taste test take it out and you’re going to want to also you’re going to want to make sure

Go ahead those are the two uh egg whites that we’re going to that acts as a it helps bind the pasta together uh so you get those beautiful this is good and Al Dente I’m just using my hands folks beautiful slices out of there yeah that’s why we’re wearing gloves cuz you

Got raw egg here but anyway back to the pasta so uh use a pair of tongs or something to kind of help move the pasta around in the hot water it’ll stick to each other it’ll stick to the bottom and if you do that that it keeps it from

Doing that then when it’s alente that means it’s it’s not crunchy but it’s got a little resistance to the bite just a bit then we’re going to drain that and like we put it in this bowl over here and Wesley has added the egg and now

We’ve got a cup of our grated favorite Greek cheep cheese that is so good and that just again that adds flavor and that coats it beautifully so now while you’re doing that I’m going to talk another really important component of y’ look at this this is so much fun of this

Dish is um Wesley’s playing with cheese and pasta is the the size of the dish you can’t use just a regular 9×13 because you could but you’re not going to get all of this in there and you’re not going to get those nice big layers literally each one of these layers is

Probably close to an inch thick so I’ve got I’ve got a link to this with what I’ve a lasagna pan should work just fine but if you’ll notice what’s unique about this this dish is is that it’s got It’s pretty deep uh so you definitely want to

Make sure this is probably 2 and 1/2 to 3 in deep um by just just your standard lasagna pan size so that looks good okay so now we are going to have some fun we’re going to layer this now the way you get those you don’t have to do this

But it’s so visually beautiful to get those really pretty uh all like stacked in a row um circular pieces of pasta is to get them into the pan all going into a line into the in the dish all going the same direction we’ve been playing with this recipe for quite a while and

We got I mean the first few times we got really Surgical and well we did it because we were we were taking pictures and you want it to look really like what is it called tubular anyway we were giving away Secrets but we you’re being overly you don’t need you don’t need to

Be that particular unless you want to and then by all means but see these curly cues they’re going to still be beautiful whenever we do this so we’re laying probably a good almost 2/3 of that into the see how you got that there Okay okay and then you want to try to keep it all as once you get it in here as flat as possible so you see that’s we have several layers of the pasta this pasta that I ordered from that was imported to us from Greece um was

Actually a little over a pound it was like a pound and 2 oz really we have found that a pound of pasta is is good that’s all you really need now we’re going to add uh the meat and you see it’s not like it’s not like your standard lasagna sauce that’s that you

You spr it’s so good it’s so good and and that’s this is the way it should have this kind of consistency so then we’ll be able to flatten it Out okay so we added all of that and then you just get the back of a spoon to smooth it out and we’ve got nice beautiful we’re cring each other layer of pasta I know well we’re we’re making Greek lasagna okay so now we’re going to do another just a one thin

Layer of the pasta on top of the meat this is just it adds another layer of pasta which is always good but it also gives it sort of a a foundation a base uh for the marshmallow that we’re going to be putting on There okay so now we have a beautiful nice thin layer of that now we add wo one more layer um and this is that I’m spitzing I know well we’re working uh we’re going to add this nice thick bsh smell come on baby there we go and uh

Then we’re going to do the same thing we’re going to get on here and then we’re going to smooth it Out Okay so now it’s literally like I it you you said earlier it’s kind of like mashed potatoes it is kind of the consistency of that and then you just want to make sure you have a nice smooth layer and then now we’ve got another half a cup of this glorious cheese and

We’re going to sprinkle this all over the top um wow I know I know it’s a I love it it is a work of art uh and it just oh when it’s baking the smell is so good so that cheese I know it’s it’s a little very fluffy it is

It’s fluffy and it’s a little it’s so moist and milky that it wants to kind of Clump together but that’s okay that’s okay um Okay so we’ve got our oven preheated to 350° we’re getting so close I mean we’re getting close but we got to

Let this thing bake now and it bakes for about an hour and it start to get kind of nice and browned on top and then we got a lot of cool for just a little bit but we’re so close so close oh that smell is just amazing

Y’all okay so this has been going almost oh look at that almost oh I love that almost an hour um it’s just isn’t that beautiful I just love it unbelievable so it’s been I think it’s been one like 57 minutes it’s gone so just keep an eye on it when you know it

Could probably go even longer if you’d like to get a darker top but you want to get it nice and brown like that and the smell is Heavenly so you just while we’re sitting here you may be thinking that seems like it looks good but that

Seems like an awful lot of work well for an afternoon project there’s it’s a little bit of work but you can make the meat sauce in ad you can make it two to three days in advance the Bell you can even make it a couple hours in advance

And um you know and then it all comes together pretty quickly uh but anyway you do need to let this chill for you could eat it now I guess but it kind of you know go all over the place so you want to have that pretty really

Slice and here we’re saying we’re going to have that we probably it’ll probably whatever we’re going to have to do the sacrificial First Slice but anyway we’re going to let this rest for anywhere for at least 20 to 30 minutes it’ll stay warm for a nice good time then and then

We’re going to eat yeah yeah yeah okay the time is here I always get so the First Slice thing I have a First Slice syndrome it really because I just I want it to be perfect and it never is but that’s okay so we’re going to do what we

Call the sacrificial slice and I’ll eat it later and you’ll eat it later and if you’ll see that we’ve already sliced this Wesley and I think he’s right if you get a nice good sturdy spatula to go in and cut yourself there you go oh wonderful nice there you go okay see

It’s that’s been we let this go for oh 30 minutes and look how it’s still steaming yes here do you need me to do you need to take some more out of there yeah maybe just a little bit well no that’s all right all right you’re good

Yeah all right this is yours Chris be nice to it okay oh this is mine okay yes all right slip in that way I’m going to slip in that way you almost made these too small maybe me make something too small I know that’s unheard of oh that’s gorgeous look at

That okay that’s mine let me just make sure people can see look at that you guys beautiful yum all right it’s a Greek uh Masterpiece I think all right Chris this is what this is all this is what matters I know the pressure is on there you go go slow so everybody can

Go da da da da gorgeous gorgeous come on over um I am go ahead use your fork yeah go ahead okay woo wow look at that y’all oh Chris I love your tubes thank you oh yes look at that oh I wanted to make sure people

Could see inside oh yeah yeah that’s all right no you want here we can pull it back here we go get a good view of her tubes here there we go look at that you guys here she is there’s in all her glory those are tubes isn’t it amazing

How that just works like that I love how it just sits on top of that pasta like it’s like okay we’re all here as a happy family oh um yeah okay uh this is the hard part I think what is this dog oh I know we have a dog that that’s wanting

Something to fall okay I’m going to try and do it as as as well as I can peely as possible yeah it gets a little messy I’m ruining well I’m trying to do it for the people at home oh the people you always are doing it for the people it’s supposed to

Get a little messy wow okay I think I’m going to do some stabbing yeah I’m so excited I know I’m sorry oh mine’s completely cooled off all right okay wow it’s just so heartwarming wow I just and there’s something about it that’s it’s it’s definitely reminiscent of

Lasagna but it’s Unique in its own way oh you could taste that hint yeah of cinnamon oh and that Bell is just so creamy and all right I am oh all right one more bite oh oh you guys we have so much to thank the Greeks

For and this is definitely one of them if you are having a party and for New Year’s get everybody over early and make this and you’ll have a blast it’ll be fun it’s so much fun it’s so awesome this this is this is 100,000% lunar proof yes this is so

Yeah this is a great New Year’s Eve dish it’s good any time of the year just like I know in the it’s you know winter salce right now oh that’s right so yeah so we’ll cuddle up and form and and we love you guys we hope you’ve had fun we’ve

Had a blast making this you should make it it’s a lot of fun make some P bye everybody bye