There are three layers to a pasticcio—pasta tossed in feta, meat sauce, and béchamel.

To make life easier, we’ve combined the pasta and meat sauce.

If you want to go the extra mile, lay the pasta neatly in the base of the dish so that when you cut it, you have a wall of rigatoni holes.

You can also add a cup of white wine before you add the tin tomatoes.

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Serves 6

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled & diced
6 cloves garlic, crushed
500g beef mince
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried oregano
500g Rigatoni pasta

For the cheese sauce

1 lt milk
2 bay leaves
6 peppercorns
1 clove garlic, peeled
60g butter
60g plain flour
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup grated Kefalograviera cheese
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Method

Heat oil in a large frypan over medium heat. Add onion and salt, and sauté for 2 minutes; add garlic and sauté until fragrant.

Add mince and cook, breaking it up as you cook until it’s dark and flavourful.

Add tomato puree and cook, stirring for about 2 mins to cook off the rawness of the puree; add tin tomatoes, cinnamon and bay, and cook over low heat for around 30 mins.

To make the cheese sauce

Place milk, bay, and garlic in a small saucepan and gently simmer. Remove from heat and discard garlic, peppercorns and bay.

Melt butter in a medium-sized saucepan over low heat. Add flour and cook, stirring continuously, for about 3 minutes. Slowly whisk the milk into the flour and butter and cook for about 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the cheeses, cayenne, salt and pepper until smooth.

Meanwhile, cook the rigatoni as per pack directions in salted boiling water.

Drain pasta and mix through the meat sauce. If the sauce looks a little thick, you can add a little pasta water to thin it out.

Place pasta in a large deep baking dish and top with cheesy béchamel sauce.

Bake in 180 °C oven for 20 mins or until the top is golden.