Pastitsio — Greek Pasta Bake with Béchamel with homemade tomato paste – Gluten-free version

👨‍🍳 Method

For the homemade tomato paste ✓ Homemade · or skip – back to store-bought

1. 1
   Wash the tomatoes, remove the cores and quarter each tomato.

   KnifeCutting board
2. 2
   Put the tomatoes, the salt and half of the olive oil in a wide pot, cover and cook over medium heat about 20 minutes, until the tomatoes soften and release their liquid.

   StoveWide, shallow pot
3. 3
   Pass the tomatoes and their liquid through a food mill or sieve and return the purée to the pot: the skins and seeds stay behind.

   Food millorFine sieve
4. 4
   Cook uncovered about an hour at a lively simmer, stirring now and then, until the purée reduces by half.

   StoveWooden spoon

   💡The paste burns easily as it dries: stir and scrape the bottom and edges, and once it is thick, don't walk away.
5. 5
   Preheat the oven to 110°C (230°F).

   Oven

   💡Put things in the oven only once it's reached temperature, after the heating light has gone off: an oven that hasn't reached temperature changes baking times, and the bake burns outside or stays underbaked.
6. 6
   Grease a wide baking dish with the rest of the olive oil and pour in the purée in a thin layer. Dry in the oven about 3 hours, stirring and scraping the edges every 30 minutes, until the paste is thick, sticky and brick red.

   OvenBaking sheetSilicone spatula
7. 7
   Let the paste cool.

   Jar

For the Meat sauce

1. 8
   Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F).

   Oven
2. 9
   Heat the olive oil in a pot over medium heat.

   StovePot
3. 10
   Add the onion and fry 5–8 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion is soft and translucent and starts to turn golden at the edges. If it browns too fast, lower the heat.

   Stove

   💡Add by cooking time: what needs long (onion, carrot, meat) goes in first, and what burns fast (garlic, dry spices) goes in last, only until fragrant.
4. 11
   Add the garlic and fry about 30 seconds to 1 minute, just until fragrant. Don't let the garlic brown.

   Stove

   💡Garlic burns quickly and turns bitter. Add it only after the onion has softened, over medium heat, and add the next ingredient as soon as it smells fragrant.
5. 12
   Raise the heat to medium-high and add the meat. Press it flat over the bottom and leave it for 2–3 minutes without stirring, until a brown crust forms.

   Stove

   💡Brown ground beef in the pot without pressing it: leave it as one 'cake' for a few minutes until a brown crust forms, then break it into chunks. Deep browning = deep flavor.
6. 13
   Break it up with a wooden spoon and fry for 5–7 more minutes, stirring, until no pink is left and the meat browns.

   StoveWooden spoon
7. 14
   Add the tomato paste to the meat and stir 1 minute, until it darkens a little.

   💡Fry the tomato paste with the meat for a minute before the liquids: it caramelizes lightly, loses its sourness and deepens the sauce.
8. 15
   Pour in the red wine, scrape up what stuck to the bottom, and cook for 3–5 minutes, until about half the wine has evaporated.

   Stove

   💡Adding the red wine at the start and cooking it long lets the alcohol evaporate and the flavor deepen.
9. 16
   Add the tomatoes, oregano and cinnamon, season with salt and black pepper and bring to a boil.

   Stove

   💡Add a pinch of sugar or half a grated carrot to a tomato sauce. The natural sugar balances the acidity. Do not add baking soda: it changes the texture and the taste.
10. 17
    Serve hot 0.

    StoveLid

    💡The slower the sauce cooks, the thicker it gets and the better the flavors blend. 20–30 minutes make a quick meat sauce; an hour and a half to two hours over low heat make a rich Bolognese.

    💡A gentle simmer, not a boil: a hard boil dries the food out and clouds it, a slow simmer cooks it evenly.

For the Cooked pasta

1. 18
   Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water (4¼ cups of water and a heaping teaspoon of salt for every 4 oz of pasta), following the package directions (taste about 2 minutes early), until al dente.

   StovePot

   💡The water should taste like a seasoned soup, not like sea water: a heaping teaspoon of salt per liter. Add the salt once the water is boiling.
2. 19
   Drain.

   Colander

For the Béchamel

1. 20
   Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat, add the gluten-free flour blend and stir 1–2 minutes, until a smooth roux forms and starts to bubble.

   StovePot
2. 21
   Gradually add the milk, whisking constantly, and cook 5–8 minutes, until the sauce is thick and coats the back of a spoon.

   StoveWhisk

   💡Add the milk slowly, whisking constantly, so no lumps form. For lasagna, the common ratio is about 7 g gluten-free flour blend per 100 ml milk (4 tablespoons gluten-free flour blend to 2 cups): more gluten-free flour blend gives a thick béchamel, for moussaka; less gluten-free flour blend gives a soft béchamel, for a sauce.
3. 22
   Season with salt and Nutmeg.
4. 23
   Remove from the heat and stir in the eggs.

   💡Eggs go into the béchamel only after it has cooled slightly: boiling béchamel cooks them into lumps.

To assemble

1. 24
   Spread in a baking pan a layer of half of the pasta, then the meat sauce over it and the rest of the pasta on top. Pour the béchamel over it in an even layer.

   Baking pan
2. 25
   Sprinkle the parmesan on top.
3. 26
   Bake 40 minutes, until the lasagna turns golden.

   OvenBaking pan

   💡Check by the cue (until…), not just the clock: every oven bakes a little differently.
4. 27
   Leave the lasagna out of the oven 10 minutes, and only then cut.