Pastitsio

Favorite recipe to make me feel better. It's in the oven now and smells sooooo good. I'll post a pic later, or at least i'll try to if i can keep myself from digging in long enough.

the recipe is from my mom's greek cooking cookbook and i stick to it pretty closely, though tonight i cut everything in half as i really don't need all the calories that would come from eating this much over the week. so long as i alternate with my pozole, it should be okay.
i generally add more nutmeg than called for, but that's just me! enjoy!

Pastitsio

1 lb long macaroni
4 tbs butter
¾ cup grated parmesan cheese
¼ tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper
3 eggs, lightly beaten

Meat Sauce:
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbs butter
1.5 lb ground beef
¼ cup tomato paste
½ cup dry red or white wine
½ cup stock
2 tbs chopped parsley
½ tsp sugar
salt and pepper

Cream Sauce:
1/3 cup butter
½ cup flour
3 cups milk
¼ tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Cook macaroni in boiling, salted water until just tender. Drain and return to pan.
2. Melt butter until golden brown and pour over macaroni. Add ½ cup of the cheese, the nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste and toss well. Leave until cool, add eggs and toss again. Keep aside.
3. Make meat sauce. Gently fry onion and garlic in butter until onion is soft, increase heat and add ground beef. Stir well and cook until meat begins to brown.
4. Add remaining eat sauce ingredients, cover and simmer over gentle heat for 20 min
5. Make cream sauce. Melt butter in a saucepan, stir in flour and cook gently for 2 min. Add milk all at once and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil gently for 1 minute
6. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste and cool a little before stirring in beaten egg.
7. Add ½ cup o this sauce to the cooked meat sauce.
8. To assemble Pastitsio, butter a 33x23x8 cm oven dish. Spoon half of the prepared macaroni evenly in the base and top with the meat sauce. Cover with remaining macaroni, leveling top.
9. Pour on cream sauce and spread to completely cover macaroni. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and cook in a moderate oven for 50 min until golden brown.
Let stand for 10 min before cutting into squares to serve