You could say that Pastitsio is the pasta equivalent of the famous Greek Moussaka.  This savory baked pasta pie contains minced beef meat and is also found in the cuisines of Cyprus, Egypt and Malta.

Although it takes some time to cook, Pastitsio (or Παστίτσιο in Greek) is delicious and can be served as a main dish, managing to please everyone.

Laziness Factor: 2

[where 0 is spending all your money on beer and 4 is predicting the stock market for a decade]

 

Ingredients for 5-6 servings:

– 500g bucatini or other tubular pasta

– 500g minced beef meat

– 1 finely chopped onion

– 2 diced tomatoes

– 200g concentrated tomato juice

– 2 laurel leaves

– salt and pepper

 

For the bechamel sauce:

– 200g butter

– 200g white flour

– 5 cups (1 liter) milk

– nutmeg, salt

– some (150-250 g) grated cheese

 

Here is a video version of this recipe:

1.

Heat some olive oil over high heat and toss the laurel leaves in, along with the minced meat.

2.

As the meat starts turning brown, add the chopped onion, salt and pepper.

3.

In a couple of minutes, add the diced tomatoes, which will fill the pan with their water.

4.

Bring a pot of salter water to the boil and throw the bucatini in.

5.

Meanwhile, when the tomatoes seem rather disintegrated, add the tomato juice. Lower the heat and cover.

6.

As soon as the bucatini is ready, drain in a colander and lay in a ceramic bowl or Pyrex pan with a lid. Also pour all the sauce with meat on top of the bucatini.

Now, it’s a good time to turn the oven on!

7.

To start with the bechamel, put all the butter in a pot over high heat and stir to melt.

8.

As soon as the butter has melt, start adding a little bit of flour and stirring quickly. Do this consecutively until you have added all the flour.

9.

Immediately add the milk, little by little. Remember that the secret is to keep stirring all the time! Also add salt and pepper.

10.

Add as much nutmeg as you’d like.

11.

Finish by turning the heat off and adding the grated cheese.

12.

Pour and lay the bechamel on top of the sauce-meat layer. A spatula will help you straighten it up.

13.

Put some cheese on top, too. It gives a really mouth-watering look to the bechamel!
Put in the oven and bake at 220°C until the bechamel starts turning brown on the top.

14.

Let it cool down for 5 minutes and serve! That’s a guaranteed culinary success.

What is LazyPasta.com?

Lazy Pasta is the page to explore the world's collection of easy pasta recipes - and then some more elaborate ones. As our life has become faster, you can also try our quick recipes that use favourite pasta types like spaghetti, lasagne, fusilli and rigatoni, that are combined to create simple pasta dishes.

All the Lazy Pasta recipes are presented in photos, which guide through the step-by-step process, and they all end up with their respective pasta recipe video.

Categories of pasta recipes

Lazy Pasta recipes are divided into categories: there are vegetarian pasta recipes, pasta recipes with meat, pasta recipes with seafood and fish, pasta salads, pasta soups and recipes with baked pasta.

The recipe presented above is Pastitsio (Pasticcio) and it belongs to the Pasta Bake recipes category.

Why pasta?

Pasta is a great ingredient for quick and delicious dishes. Perfect pasta dishes don't always have to be hard to prepare. According to Lazy Pasta there is "an easy pasta recipe for every human on the planet".

Although it's hard to tell which country pasta originates from (whether it's Italy or China), the history of pasta is long and interesting.

Truth be told, pasta has become popular as an ingredient of the Italian cuisine and it forms part of the Mediterranean diet. Pasta dishes can be ordered and devoured in various Italian restaurants all around the world.

The secret of the pasta may lie in its simplicity. It is usually made of white flour or wheat flour, but today we also have the options of whole wheat pasta and, more recently, gluten-free pasta.

Then again, the list of ingredients that can be used in a pasta recipe is endless; The sauce can be anything for a simple tomato sauce to bechamel sauce, white sauce with cream or other dressings. Garlics and onions are great friends of pasta, vegetables and other greens like parsley, dill, spinach, zucchini, peppers, broccoli and mint can be found in various recipes, while cheese is an absolute ticket to success, either grated, sliced or baked on top.

No matter how elaborate a pasta recipe is, the result can be mouth-watering and is certain to please everyone's palate.