The Creamy Jarred Sauce That Turns Pasta & Ground Beef Into A Classic Greek Comfort Food

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Every country has its signature comfort foods. In the U.S., we have our mac and cheese and crispy fried chicken, of course. Mexico has its birria and sopa, and Italy has ragù and a plethora of pasta dishes that will warm the soul. But there's one classic Greek dish that you may have never even heard of that is creamy, cheesy, and full of warmly spiced beefy flavor. It's called pastitsio, and at the risk of oversimplification, you can think of it as a sort of Greek lasagna or, maybe more correctly, a Greek mastaccioli of sorts because it features smaller pieces of pasta rather than layered sheets.

Pastitsio typically uses an ultra-smooth béchamel sauce as the final poured-over topping that will get nice and creamy and crispy with grated cheese and pasta. However, you can skip the hassle of making your own béchamel and use a jarred Alfredo or white sauce in its place — think Bertolli or Classico. Creating your homemade pastitsio is pretty simple. All you have to do is layer a casserole pan with cooked pasta, top it with cinnamon-spiced meat sauce, pour over your store-bought Alfredo, then a little Kefalotyri cheese (or Romano or parmesan if you really can't find any Greek cheese), and bake it until nice and golden brown. It's a wonderfully crispy, creamy, beefy bite with every forkful, and there are some special tips you can follow to get more spice and flavor.

Ideally, you'll be using authentic Greek pastitsio noodles for the recipe, but if you don't have a grocery store that carries a lot of Greek imports nearby, penne or ziti will work. You want something in a tubular shape that won't fall apart in the bake to give your pastitsio its signature layered look. As for your jarred white sauce, some store-bought Alfredos are better than others, but with all of the flavor you'll be adding, as long as it's creamy and relatively tasty, it should work just fine. For the sauce, you can use a jarred meat sauce as your base, but it needs to be thick enough to create a solid layer. To that end, you'll want to add more ground beef, some shredded carrots, diced onions, garlic, and maybe celery, but this is the point where you can spread your wings to personalize your pastitsio and pack it with herbs and spices. As long as cinnamon is the highlight, you can get creative.

If you want to really experiment with spices, you can think of the flavor of a good pastitsio as similar to a spiced British mince pie. Warming spices like ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove are common, and you can add them into the Alfredo sauce (just like a béchamel) to get a nice spread over the top, rather than sauteing them with the meat. A bit of oregano, thyme, and marjoram go great with the meat sauce, with maybe a splash or two of red or white wine. And if you want to up the salty, umami flavor, try a tablespoon or two of miso paste. Just like most casseroles, a pastitsio can start with the basics and build the flavor from there. It may contain quite a few ingredients, but it's no sweat if you already have everything in the pantry or fridge.