Ingredients

For the Mincemeat:

100gr Butter

1500 gr Beef Minced meat (fatty)

3 White Onions

2 Cloves of Garlic

4 Tbsp of Tomato paste

2 glasses of red wine

400gr Chopped Tomatoes

2 Beef cubes

1/2 a tsp of Cinnamon 

1/8 a tsp of Clove

A little water if needed

100gr of Parmesan cheese

Salt and freshly Ground Black Pepper

For the Pasta: 

500gr of Spaghetti for Pastichio (The very large fat type)

50gr of butter

100gr grated Parmesan Cheese

2 egg whites (medium)

Salt and freshly Ground Black Pepper

For the Bechamel Sauce:

100gr of Butter

100gr of Plain Flour (all purpose)

1 ltr of full cream (luke warm) milk

1/2 of a nutmeg grated

1 vegetable cube

Salt and freshly Ground Black Pepper

2 egg yolks

For the Pastichio:

Some breadcrumbs to sprinkle over the béchamel sauce

50gr of grated Parmesan cheese

Little cubes of butter to sprinkle over the surface before putting in the oven.

Method

For the Mincemeat:

In a large and wide saucepan on a medium heat, put the butter and the mincemeat and saute them until brown.

I prefer Greek mincemeat as it doesn’t have a lot of moisture, but if you only have a small saucepan, saute the meat in batches.

After you have sautéed the meat, add the onions and a little olive oil if needed.

We don’t want the onion to change colour just soften. Add the garlic and tomato paste and saute for 2-3 minutes.

Add the wine to lower the heat and the chopped tomatoes, the cubes and the herbs.

I don’t cook the meat a lot, I prefer it to be lighter and I don’t put a lot of herbs either, in Pastichio.

Put the lid on the saucepan and simmer for about an hour putting in a little water if needed.

Generally we want it to cook through and soften the meat. Taste the mixture and add salt and pepper to taste. Don’t put too much salt as we will be adding the cheese at the end.

When the mincemeat sauce is ready we take it off the heat and add the parmesan. Stir the cheese through and put it aside.

From the mincemeat sauce I take out about a third which I put in a container and freeze for future use.

The rest will go into the Pastichio.

For the Pasta:

Boil the spaghetti in lots of salty water for 2 mins less than stated on the packet!

Drain the pasta and dissolve the butter in the pan and add the parmesan and egg whites then put the spaghetti back in and stir it around to make sure all the pasta is coated with the butter, egg whites and cheese.

For the Bechamel Sauce:

Put the butter in a saucepan with the flour and stir with a wooden spoon on a medium heat until it takes on a little colour.

Put the milk into the mixture slowly stirring the mixture to mix it in thoroughly before adding more.

When all the milk has been added put in the vegetable cube and let the mixture heat up until it starts to thicken.

Put in the nutmeg and the salt and pepper- not too much as we have put in a cube and we will be adding cheese…

Take the mixture off the heat and add the cheese and the egg yolks and stir them in well!

For the Pastichio:

Heat the fan forced oven to 170c

In a medium Pyrex or other container of your choice put half of the pasta in the base and add the mincemeat sauce to cover it. Then add the rest of the pasta and then cover that with the béchamel sauce. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the sauce and add the rest of the Parmesan cheese and the little cubes of butter on top to achieve a golden colour…

Put the dish in the oven and bake for 35-40 mins until it turns golden brown on top.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool enough to be cut up more easily- if you don’t do this it will be runny and difficult to cut into sections.

Kali Orexi!!