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A lasagna recipe is sure to show up here sooner or later, and I am looking forward to that "killer app". In the meantime, here is a curve ball - Greek "lasagna". There must be a thousand recipes for pastitsio (pah-STEET-si-oh), but this one, served with a salad, will win some raised eyebrows and nods of approval at your next "couldn't make the away game" party.

Zom's hot tips: I hate measurements, and the mathemeticians among you may flag some of these metric/imperial numbers. Well, everything is approximate, and liberally rounded. Key off the metric if you want to recalculate, otherwise what goes around comes around. Next, the "soup" problem. You can deal with excess liquid by undercooking the pasta before putting it all together and letting the pasta soak up some juice - lasagna pros will catch on to this dish pretty fast, and you can always use olive oil at the table if it is too dry. The deeper the oven dish the better, and lastly, if you can't be bothered to make your own bechemal sauce, fine with me. A big jar of your faourite "ready made" will be fine.


Preparation time: 30 - 40 mins
Cooking time: 1hr
Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 500g, 1lb dry macaroni, or pasta tubes
• 3-4tbspn butter
• 250g, 8oz grated cheese (Haloumi or Parmesan)
• 1/4 nutmeg, grated, or small tspn
• 1 tspn cinnamon
• 1 tspn oregano
• salt and pepper
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten

For the meat sauce:

• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• +/- 3 cloves garlic (to taste), crushed
• 30g, 1 oz butter
• 750g, 1 1/2lb lean minced lamb (or pork, or beef, or all 3)
• 3-4 tbspn tomato puree/paste
• 1/4 wine glass of olive oil
• 1 glass of wine - red or white
• 1 can plum tomatoes, chopped, or 1-2 fresh beefsteak tomato
• 1 bunch chopped parsley
• 1 tspn sugar
• Salt and pepper

For the Bechamel sauce:

• 4-5 tbspn butter
• 6 fl oz flour
• 750ml, 3 cups milk
• 1-2 tspn nutmeg
• Salt and pepper
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Method:

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until just tender. Drain and return to the pan. Melt butter until golden brown and pour over pasta. Add cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper and toss well. Leave to cool, add eggs and toss again. Set aside. Gently fry onion and garlic in butter until soft. Add lamb and fry until the meat starts to brown. Add remaining meat sauce ingredients and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

For the bechamel sauce:

butter in a sauce pan, stir in flour and cook gently for 2 minutes. Add milk and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Boil gently for 1 minute. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper and cool a little before adding beaten egg. Add half a cup of the Bechamel sauce to the meat sauce.

To assemble the pastitsio, butter an oven dish. Spoon half the prepared macaroni evenly over the base and top with the meat sauce. Cover with the remaining macaroni, levelling the top. Pour on cream sauce and spread to completely cover pasta. Sprinkle remaining cheese over the top and bake in medium oven for about an hour, until golden brown.

Serve this with:

• green salad
• hot bread (how about ciabatta with sun dried tomatoes?)
• a light & fruity red - try a Sicilian table red, or spend a penny and grab some bottles of Chianti Rufina