Cheap Greek Pastitsio

nicjohnson

Hi All,

Pinched this one from Netmums who had it from Sainsburys feed your family for a fiver. Made it last night and it was deeeelish, it made enough for 2 huge portions (had to roll me upstairs to bed ) last night, will be 2 for lunch today, and one for hubbys lunch at work on Mon.

Although its under Sainsburys feed your family for a fiver most of the stuff (oil, garlic, onions, tinned toms, pasta, eggs) were stuff I always have in anyway...so only had to invest in the mince, cheese and greek yoghurt... a fab cheap meal but posh enough for a special occassion too!


2 tablespoons of oil
4 garlic cloves
2 onions chopped
1 packet mince (used turkey mince...nabbed from the rtc section )
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1tsp sugar
beef stock cube (only had chicken ones in the house - they were fine)
350g pasta swirls
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 large pot of Greek-style yogurt
200g of mild grated cheese

Heat the oil in a large pan, cook garlic and onion, on gentle heat for five minutes, or until onion is soft.
Add the mince and cook until browned, drain off fat, add chopped tomatoes, and beef stock.
Preheat oven to 180 C/Gas 4 while the mince is cooking.
Simmer mince for 30 mins. Meanwhile cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling water (for about 10 minutes) until soft, drain well and spread in the bottom of a large ovenproof dish. Top with the mince mixture.
Mix the yoghurt, eggs and half the grated cheese together and spread over the top of the mince. Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese and bake for 30 mins or until cheese is golden brown.

xxvickixx

Mmmm that sounds good, thanks.

BitterAndTwisted

In my opinion it can't be a truly authentic Greek recipe unless it has cinnamon and grated nutmeg in the meat sauce. I'm surprised it isn't included in the Sainsb recipe. Also, I think the most suitable pasta is macaroni as that should soak up the tomato sauce a treat so it ends up nice and firm and could be cut with a knife into portions to serve.

Back in the day when I was a meat-eating person this was one of my favourite dishes when visiting Greece

bramble1

Thanks for that recipe, will give it a try.

I saw Rick Stein cook pastitsio once and have wanted to have a go ever since!!

nicjohnson

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

In my opinion it can't be a truly authentic Greek recipe unless it has cinnamon and grated nutmeg in the meat sauce. I'm surprised it isn't included in the Sainsb recipe. Also, I think the most suitable pasta is macaroni as that should soak up the tomato sauce a treat so it ends up nice and firm and could be cut with a knife into portions to serve.

Back in the day when I was a meat-eating person this was one of my favourite dishes when visiting Greece

agree - and luckily we had some cinnamon lurking in the store cupboard, the nutmeg we found 'died' in 2007, so we left that . Suspect Sainsburys had just left them out to keep within the fiver bracket..

I'm going to have a crack with quorn mince next, as the idea meat mince freaks me out a bit

nicjohnson

bramble1 wrote: »

Thanks for that recipe, will give it a try.

I saw Rick Stein cook pastitsio once and have wanted to have a go ever since!!

Good luck :T - warn you though...its very filling, I'm still feeling a bit bloated now!

curlytop12

thanks,i used to make this regularly,bit haven;t for ages.
went to shop last night and got in the yoghurt,had everything else in stock.
thats tomorrows tea and couple of lunches sorted!