Those of you tuning in for the next destination in the Atlanta Pizza Days series, well, you’re just going to have to wait. I’ve been itching to post about something other than pizza, so I decided the pizza will take a break for the weekend. We will return to your regular scheduled programming on Monday.
I’ve been getting pretty tired of going out to eat for every meal and I had a few recipes saved that I’ve been eager to try. One of them that has been high on my list is a Pastitsio recipe I found via Tastespotting.
A traditional Greek dish, Pastitsio is often compared to lasagna, as it’s a layered baked dish with some combination of noodles, cheese, sauce, vegetables, and meat. Unlike lasagna, pastitsio is usually prepared with a tubular pasta (for you West Coast people, that doesn’t mean “gnarly pasta”) instead of flat sheets. However, like lasagna, they are similar in that there are limitless combinations when deciding which ingredients to use.
This particular version has no meat, has a béchamel sauce, and “greens” which consisted of spinach and kale in the recipe I used. I was at Trader Joe’s and decided to go a different route when I saw a bag of mixed southern greens – mustard, turnip, collards, and spinach. I didn’t think it would change the outcome too much and it adds a Southern spin to the dish.
First I cooked the pasta and blanched the greens. The greens were only in the boiling water for maybe 30 seconds, then I put them in an ice bath to stop the cooking.
I didn’t really take many pictures of this process because I was busy and was cooking by myself for the first half hour. Above I have mixed the cooked onions/garlic, the cheese (feta, fontina, ricotta), the mint & dill, and the greens. I didn’t have green onions or parsley so just I skipped them. It wasn’t a big deal.
The filling all mixed up.
So I’ve skipped a bunch up to this point, but here’s the gist of it. I created the béchamel to which I then added the egg yolks. When creating the béchamel the milk was warmed up and I added it by the half cup or so to the butter/flour roux, whisking along the way. It stayed pretty thick until I added the last 3/4 cup of milk and then it had problems. It wasn’t thickening up, I think I either added too much milk there at the end, or there wasn’t enough flour, so I ended up adding another 1/8 cup of flour and it got to the right consistency.
At that point you are ready to layer. Pasta + filler + pasta + filler + béchamel + bread crumb/parmesan mixture on top. Then into the oven at 350 for about 40-45 minutes. We waited about 15 painstaking minutes to eat after it came out.
I think it came out nicely and was a very good dinner. It tasted very fresh, the dill and mint really shone through, and it was not too heavy or dense. It was just creamy enough and the greens contributed nice flavor and the bitterness went well with the savory cheeses.
I had leftovers at about 2AM after the bar last night (great idea) and it reheated well.
Katie, patiently waiting
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