Pastitsio with vegetables and rigatoni

What a delicious dish to offer to the family!! Pastitsio is one of our favourite dishes although I don't cook it every week because it is high in calories... Personally, what makes me such a big fan of pastitsio is the luscious béchamel sauce on top. I remember when I was a kid pleading to my mother to make a little bit more béchamel than the quantity she would need so to have the chance to eat it with the spoon from the saucepan! Here we have a different version thanks to the addition of the bacon and the vegetables and although the classic pastitsio remains always my favourite this one came out very tasty, hearty and filling

Adapted from a recipe of Elias Demirtzoglou
in "Cook Book" magazine of "ETHNOS" newspaper

Ingredients (for 6 people)

For the meat sauce:
500gr. of rigatoni pasta (I used the classic long tubular thick macaroni for pastitsio)
2 yellow large onions, grated
2 cloves of garlic, minced
150gr. of streaky bacon, finely chopped (I didn't use any)
400gr. of ground beef (I used about 600gr. because the bacon was omitted)
2 tins of tomatoes concassé
1/2 tsp of sugar (optional -my addition)
1 bay leaf (optional -my addition)
1 pinch of ground allspice (optional -my addition)
250gr. of frozen sweet peas
150gr. of coarsely grated carrots
1 glass of dry red wine
3-4 tbsp of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
50ml of fresh milk
100gr. of very fine breadcrumbs
salt
pepper

For the béchamel sauce:
6 tbsp of all-purpose flour
6 tbsp of butter
800ml of full fat fresh milk, warm
1 pinch of ground nutmeg (optional -my addition)
1 cup of Greek Graviera cheese, grated (divided)

Method:
Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water, 2-3 minutes less than is indicated on the box. Drain well in a colander and return to the pot. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil, stir and leave aside for later.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Brush a medium size oven pan with some oil.

In a non-stick pot put the onions, the garlic and the bacon in medium-high heat and sauté (without any fat) for 5 minutes, stirring with a wooden spatula. Add the meat and sauté for another 5 minutes, breaking the meat into pieces with the spatula, until it changes colour. Pour over with the wine, add the tomatoes, the sugar (if used), the bay leaf (if used), the allspice (if used), the peas, the carrots and the parsley and stir well.

Season with salt and pepper, cover with the lid, turn the heat to medium-low and simmer until the meat is cooked, most of the liquids are evaporated and the sauce is slightly thickened.

When the meat sauce is ready, discard the bay leaf and transfer into the pot with the rigatoni. Gently stir with two spoons to blend. Add the milk and the breadcrumbs, stir again and leave aside.

In a saucepan melt the butter in medium heat and add the flour. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the butter is absorbed by the flour and it starts getting a golden colour. At this point add the warm milk little by little, constantly stirring at the same time until the sauce is thickened. Add half the quantity of the Graviera cheese, the nutmeg (if used), a bit of salt, pepper and stir well.

Lay the rigatoni and meat sauce mixture on the bottom of the pan and cover with the béchamel sauce. Sprinkle on top with the rest of the cheese and bake in the oven for about 40-45 minutes.

Take out of the oven, leave the pastitsio to settle for a few minutes and then cut into portions to serve.