Pastitcio - Greek Baked Pasta with ground beef

A baked pasta from Greece. Creamy pasta with ground beef, tomato sauce and cheese. A bit fatty but it nice and delicious and almost everyone from around the world enjoyed this.(I think)

The first thing You must do is boiling the pasta, in Greece we can search the special pasta for this as Pasticio Pasta but if you cannot find it just grab penne it will be similar.

Ingredients:

250 grams pasta (half 500 grams pack)

The Cream:
1 cup all purpose flour
1,5 liter milk
salt & pepper
50 grams butter
1 egg (big)

The filling;
500 grams minced ground beef (lamb optional)
1-2 pcs minced fresh tomatoes or
1 pack 100 grams tomato sauce/juice classic (pummaro brand i prefer)
1 pcs red onions
1-2 pcs cloves garlic (optional)
1/2 cup red wine (the sweet red wine will be nice)
salt & pepper
olive oil
a pinch of oregano (optional)

1/4 cup of parmesan cheese or in Greece can find Kefalotiri for optional cheese

Baking dish size; 25 X 35 X 6 cm

The Preparations:

First thing first is boiling the pasta until it soft (as you like) ; soft like the Italian or softer then that. then dry it (i mean really dry, try not to left any water as during the baking it will have more liquid at the bottom)

Chop onion & garlic.

Cook the meat using pan in medium heat, fried the meats with olive oil and stir it until soft then start fill in the onions & garlic until it turns transparent and then throw the wine and let it evaporated.
After that start fill in the tomato and stir until all mix and ready.

For the cream, melt the butter in the medium saucepan with low heat then fill in the milk after whisk it with the eggs and flour then stir it in saucepan until no lump and starting boiled.

For the baking dish; brush it with olive oil then transfer the pasta for the first layer, the second layer the meat mixture then the last is the cream and some cheese on top to cover the cream (optional).

Baked in 200C heat around 35-40 minutes, removed from oven. Cool it around 15 minutes, if not it will really soft and liquid, a bit difficult to cut it.

Better serve after cooling down but not too cold, just until a bit hard; around 10-15 mnts.

Hope this recipe clear enough for you, if you have any questions you can contact me.

Happy baking.

LOUKOUMADES - GREEK DONUTS

This is one of my favorite sweet from Greek traditional sweets. Easy to make and nice to eat while its hot.
In Greece, you can find it somewhere in pastry shops or coffee shop with sweets for breakfast or all day long to accompany your coffee.
But if you want, you can make it on your own, as to have more healthy food with fresh fried oil instead at the shop, that mostly use the oil for many times.
It's taste almost like donuts, but this are more crispy at the outside and soft in the inside.

The ingredients:

For the Dough
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 pkg. (1/4 oz) dry yeast
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. whiskey or brandy
1-1/2 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup lukewarm water

2 cups canola or corn oil for frying

Ground cinnamon and walnuts for serving

For the Syrup: just honey i prefer.
But if you like to have it more liquids, you can try this;

2 cups sugar
1 stick cinnamon
1-cup water
1/2 cup honey

The preparations:


Boil the water if you don't have lukewarm water ready.
Dissolve the yeast in the 1/2 cup lukewarm water and set aside.
In a medium to large mixing bowl, add all the dry ingredients; the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt. Mix well to combine.
Add the dissolved yeast, whiskey, and 1-1/2 cups luke warm water to the dry ingredients.

Either Using an electric mixer or by hands just make sure that there are no lumps in the batter. Using the electric mixer, mix the batter for 3 minutes on medium high speed . 
Cover the batter with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place for about two hours to raise.

For the liquid syrup; Add the sugar, cinnamon stick, water and honey to a saucepan. Boil for 5 minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved. Keep warm, otherwise just use honey directly.

When the batter is about double in size, heat the 2 cups oil in a saucepan or deep frying pan until very hot but not smoky.

Using two spoons, carefully drop about a teaspoon full of batter for each puff into the hot oil. Turn the puffs using a slotted spoon and fry until golden brown on each side. Remove the puffs to a plate lined with paper toweling to absorb excess oil.

Dip the hot puffs in the syrup and then sprinkle with cinnamon, ground walnuts or even with confectioners sugar. Serve immediately.

*40 pcs with table spoon or around 60 pcs with teaspoon (depends on how you wanted to be)

Nice for breakfast accompany with hot tea or coffee, also at tea time in afternoon.

Enjoy and have fun to try, leave a comment for feedback.