Pastitsio is a classic Greek baked pasta dish made with ground beef and bechamel. Our version has all the flavors and the comforting feel of the classic, but is made in one skillet (less cleanup!) and is healthier for you, using whole-grain pasta, lean meat and low-fat dairy.
I could see where you all were going with this dish but it didn't really work. The pasta was still raw after the given 10 minute cooking time and even after another 10 minutes it wasn't even al dente. Further it tightened up very quickly on the plate and became difficut to swallow. I did like all the flavors so I'll tweek this quite a bit in another effort to enjoy this otherwise delicious pasta.
Needed more tomato, no cream cheese, that was overwhelming. I would rather make a little roux than use the cream cheese. And pasta amount should be reduced. I might be able to tweak it to make it work, but probably won't even try. Unfortunate result.
Delicious. All the flavors of a pastitsio but healthier and came together so much more quickly. I used fat free half n half and it was perfect. I didn’t have mozzarella but it was nicely creamy without. Will make again and add to rotation!
If you remove the meat and pasta this would be a good cheese dip, but it is clearly is not pastitsio. Pastitsio has ground lamb (naturally lean) not beef, and it includes Greek-style yogurt (can be low fat) as well as kefalotyri cheese (or manchego as a substitute). Pastitsio does not employ milk, cream cheese, flour, or mozzarella. Prepared as the recipe was wrtten, this dish was extremely rich and heavy. Also, if the beef/cheese mixture is simmering on medium heat (presumably to keep the cheese from burning), the dried pasta will take much longer than 9-11 minutes to become tender.
Super easy! It could do without the nutmeg and cinnamon - some in my family said it tasted pumpkiny. I liked it though! Instead of cooking the noodles on the stove, I finished it off at 300 in the oven for 15 minutes.
