Perfect Pastitsio (Vegetarian)

"Posted for Zaar World Tour 2005. Have never eaten Pastitsio (a traditional Greek dish) before and was grateful to have found one I could eat. This looks like a great one-dish meal, and takes less time to make than you might expect. It's described as a great party dish, and leftovers can be reheated and eaten a day or two later. From Vegetarian Times Cooks Mediterranean. Have not tried this recipe yet. Update: Tried this the other night. It makes a lot of food, but leftovers are quite good! Mine didn't turn out too dry with 1 cup of tomato sauce, but do add more tomato sauce or fresh tomatoes if you wish."
 
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photo by MsBindy photo by MsBindy
photo by MsBindy
Ready In:
1hr 15mins
Ingredients:
14
Serves:
8
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ingredients

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directions

  • Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.
  • In large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until golden brown, about 7 minutes.
  • Add beef substitute, chopping into small bits. Cook until browned, about 5 minutes.
  • Add tomato sauce, red wine and spice, stirring to mix.
  • Simmer, uncovered, until the excess moisture has evaporated, about 7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
  • Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to package directions, drain and set aside.
  • In large saucepan, bring milk to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium.
  • Dissolve the cornstarch in water, then add to milk in a thin stream, whisking constantly to avoid lumps.
  • Cook, whisking, until mixture has returned to a boil and is thickened, 2-3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in 3/4 cup of the cheese.
  • In separate bowl, beat eggs until light and very frothy. Add to cheese sauce in a thin stream, whisking constantly. Add salt and pepper to taste and combine with cooked pasta in a large bowl.
  • Lightly oil an 11x15x2 inch casserole dish. Spoon in half the pasta/cheese mixture. Top with meat substitute mixture, then with remaining pasta/cheese mixture. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cheese.
  • Bake until casserole is golden brown and bubbling, about 40 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before slicing and serving.

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Reviews

  1. Made & reviewed for ZWT 4 ~ Kumquat's Kookin' Kaboodles! This pastitsio is seriously good. I used stock & a little lemon juice instead of wine & Quorn mince. This recipe is perfect for a vegetarian feast & will be added to my special cookbook ;) Thanks Heather for another super recipe! :)
     
  2. This was a lot of work for an okay dinner - I found it a bit bland. I added a spinach, green peppers and carrots to my meat substitute mix. I also used TVP which you have to reconstitute with boiling water and you can skip the browning step just throw it in with the tomato sauce.
     
  3. this was very tasty and not too heavy despite the ingredients. i used veggie crumbles which have a close resemblence to real meat. i made slight changes though, doubling the amount of tomato suace because the filling was very dry. i also made a traditional white sauce with flour instead of corn starch. thanks for posting!
     
  4. I, er, used ground beef. This is a delicious dish - hey, it's essentially mac & cheese - how can you go wrong?? The 4 of us ate it for supper & the girls & I finished it off for breakfast. ;) Hehehe. YUM!
     
  5. This is the type of food I really like. I used TVP for my vegetarian ground beef. I'm not sure that was what the recipe intended, but that's what I used. I've never used it before so was unsure how this would work, or whether I would like it. TVP does not seem to brown (step 3), and it looked rather unappealing until the other ingredients were added. I did use some extra tomato sauce, and still had absolutely no excess moisture. I loved the way this looked as I put it together. And even better, when my very picky DD came home and peeked in the oven I could tell she would try it. I had to be a little deceitful about the TVP or I knew she wouldn't try it. I just said it was meat. She took her first bite....in her mouth, and immediately back out! TVP did not pass the 'tastes like meat' test. Then of course, I had to 'fess up. DH and I both found it to be a bit dry. He added some extra tomato sauce over the top. Also, the servings are extremely generous. I made 1/2 batch, we each thought we ate 'a lot', and more than 1/2 was still left.
     
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Tweaks

  1. this was very tasty and not too heavy despite the ingredients. i used veggie crumbles which have a close resemblence to real meat. i made slight changes though, doubling the amount of tomato suace because the filling was very dry. i also made a traditional white sauce with flour instead of corn starch. thanks for posting!
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>Clockwise from upper left, my dear friends Cranberry, Quincy, Kumquat and Kiwi. All of our cats were born in the wild and adopted by us. Zaar Chefs I have met so far: Elmotoo, justcallmeToni, ~Rita~, Midwest Maven, Bird&amp;Buddha (both of them) and most recently, Ms*Bindy from upstate New York:) Wonderful, sweet, friendly people and great chefs! Most relevant thing to mention here is that I am a vegetarian, and recently became a&nbsp;vegan&nbsp;(almost 100%). To put vegetables and other things not meat or fish on the table I work as an actuary (in my case anyway, a combination of statistician, number-cruncher and/or programmer). For fun I like to travel. Just came back from&nbsp;Namibia, a peaceful democracy in Africa with lots of animals! Got some terrific pictures of lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, rhinocerous, hyenas, all kinds of antelopes, giraffes and zebras. Namibia is the second most sparsely populated country per square mile, just behind Mongolia. Update:&nbsp; We went to Italy this Spring.&nbsp; We had lots of pizza and pasta.&nbsp; The pizza is so much better in Italy, particularly the crust.&nbsp; The Amalfi coast was absolutely beautiful.&nbsp; Spectacular natural scenery (Canada and Alaska are really beautiful, Patagonia in Chile is sublime, Iceland is unique) has been my latest passion as far as travel destinations but I have seen quite a few big cities too (Paris, Berlin, London and Madrid to name a few). On my bulletin board at work I keep a list of every country I've visited (other than the U.S. of course). So far I've made it to five continents: Europe, Africa, South America, Asia and North America of course. I've got only two other continents to conquer:) I don't usually have difficulty finding vegetarian dishes here in the U.S. or overseas, but finding vegan dishes is much harder. I have no kids, just cats, Kumquat, Cranberry, and more recently Quincy and Kiwi. They are purebreds, of the breed alley caticus (okay, American shorthair I guess). Our cats are not vegetarians, though my boyfriend (significant other, long-term partner, whatever) is. I am a friend of all animals both tamed and wild. In addition I am a freethinker and my boyfriend studies philosophy. Either way, we get along pretty well.&nbsp; Also, please allow me to say that my BF and I recently bought a condominium in NYC.:)&nbsp; Pet peeve? Okay, I don't like public scenes, especially parents yelling at their children, lovers' spats, etc. If it must be done please do it in private:D Participation &amp; Awards:</p>
 
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