Pastitsio – Greek pasta bake

For me, pastitsio is pure comfort from the oven. I tried the Greek pasta bake for the first time at a birthday party – and have been Team Pastitsio instead of Team Lasagne ever since. How to make our original Pastitsio recipe Bistro Badia Style I’ll show you how to prepare them now.

What is pastitsio and why is the Greek casserole so popular?

You might be thinking “Ah, I see, it’s like lasagna!” Joar, pastitsio (or pastizio and pastitio) is also called Greek lasagne. It is a Greek casserole with macaroni, minced meat sauce and béchamel.

However, the classics differ not only in the type of pasta – above all, different spices are used than for lasagne: In the macaroni casserole, cinnamon and cloves end up as the absolute secret ingredient in the minced meat sauce and the béchamel is cooked down a little creamier. So why this super cheesy, hearty pasta bake is so popular is self-explanatory, isn’t it?

You need these ingredients for the classic pastitsio

The right type of pasta: Pastitsio noodles end up in the original Greek dish. However, you can simply use macaroni or bucatini. The important thing is: we need tubular pasta.

• Minced meat: Traditionally, lamb is used in the original Greek recipe . However, it is a little tricky to get fresh minced lamb. You can find it in oriental supermarkets, for example. To make the preparation as easy as possible, I use minced beef. It tastes good too!
• Aromatic ingredients: With tomatoes, cinnamon and cloves, you can conjure up the best mince sauce ever.
• Béchamel sauce: very classic, made from butter, flour, milk and nutmeg.
• Cheese: Greek kefalotyri, a cheese made from goat’s or sheep’s milk, is actually used for pastitsio, but it is not available in every supermarket. Pecorino is a good alternative.

Make your own pastitsio – 5 simple tips for the perfect result

I’ve done a bit of tinkering for you and created the best pastitsio recipe to my taste. These tips will help you make the best Greek casserole ever:

1. The cheese and egg mixture trick: To prevent the macaroni from falling apart when you cut it and remove it from the oven dish, separate a few eggs and grate some cheese. Pour the mixture over the cooked pasta and mix well.
2. Be creative! For the Cypriot version, add more cheese to the pasta – halloumi or feta make the whole thing particularly aromatic.
3. Béchamel deluxe: You can prepare the light sauce in the classic way or pimp it up a little by grating in some cheese (e.g. halloumi, feta, kefalotyri or pecorino) and stirring in the egg yolks that you have left over anyway. This way you won’t have any leftovers and you can use all the ingredients.
4. Cook the pasta al dente – to ensure that your pastitsio pasta has the perfect consistency when it comes out of the oven, pre-cook the pasta for approx. 5 minutes until very al dente. They must not become too soft here, otherwise they will be mushy afterwards.
5. Ground clove: You can add cloves whole, but to keep it as simple as possible, just use ground clove. Otherwise you will have to fish out the moppets again.

I love lasagne – but pastitsio just has that certain something! The combination of tubular pasta, spicy minced meat sauce and this creamy béchamel is unbeatable. Try it out and tell me if you’re Team Pastitsio too!

Please leave me a rating for the pastitsio recipe and if you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to write me a comment.

I hope you enjoy making the Greek pasta bake and, of course, bon appétit.

Pastitsio recipe – Greek pasta bake

And if you fancy more Levantine classics, be sure to try musaka’a or creamy Lebanese potato casserole with mince – siniyeh batata.

You can also follow me on Instagram for even more inspiration about Levante cuisine.