Pastitsio Saves the Day

Despite being allergic to over half of the recipes in my Greek cookbooks, I happen to adore Greek food.  That conflict has led to a range of culinary substitutions of mammoth proportions.  One of the few recipes where I don't have to change ingredients because of allergy issues is Pastitsio.  But I still needed to make it vegetarian.  Thanks to the variety of soy based meat substitutes available, this was incredibly easy.

Pastitsio is basically a casserole with pasta, meat sauce, cream sauce and a cheese topping.  The original recipe that I adapted contains eggs in the cream sauce.  I, however, am a horribly suspicious person when it comes to eggs.  When cooking the original recipe I was always worried that the eggs hadn't cooked enough, so to save my peace of mind I just completely left them out of my vegetarian redaction.  My favorite part of this dish is the crispy topping of Parmesan cheese.

This is the first time I've gotten to use the beautiful casserole dish that my husband gave me for Christmas.  Isn't it lovely?  I fell in love with it the moment that I saw it in the antique store.  Can you believe it - this fabulous dish is from the 70s, according to the store tag.   There is not even a scratch on it.  I nearly gibbered in delight and begged him to get it for me.  I was so happy when I opened it up on Christmas morning!

Vegetarian Pastitsio Recipe:  Adapted from the Pastitso Recipe in The Complete Middle East Cookbook by Tess Mallos

Base Ingredients:

4 oz. Macaroni noodles

2 TB Butter

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1 tsp ground nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Fake Meatsauce:

1 TB Olive oil

1 TB butter
2 TB minced garlic

1 large Onion, chopped

1 pkg. Morningstar Farms Recipe Crumbles

1 tsp soy sauce

1/4 cup chopped tomatoes

1/2 cup red wine

1/2 cup vegetable stock

3 TB dried or fresh parsley

1 tsp ground cardamom

2 tsp ground cumin

1 TB garlic powder

1 tsp nutmeg

Cream Sauce:

3 TB butter

1/2 to 3/4 cup milk

4 TB all purpose flour

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

1 tsp nutmeg

Part 1: The Base

1. Boil the noodles, drain and place in casserole dish.

2. Add the butter in slices to the hot noodles and stir until melted.
3. Mix in parmesan, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Part 2: Fake Meatsauce

1. Heat olive oil and butter in skillet, saute the minced garlic for 2 mins.

2. Add onions to the pan with the garlic and saute until clear then remove from pan.

3. Saute frozen Morningstar Farms crumbles with leftover olive oil in the pan and the soy sauce.

4. Add the vegetable stock, wine, herbs and spices, tomatoes, onions and garlic.  Stir well.

5. Cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes or until liquid is reduced away.

6. Mix the fake meatsauce into the noodles in the casserole dish, stirring until well distributed.

Part 3: Cream Sauce

1. Melt the butter in the same pan that held the meatsauce.

2. Add milk slowly, stirring constantly.

3. Add flour a little bit at a time, again keep stirring!

4. Slowly mix in the parmesan cheese and nutmeg.  Cook for just a few minutes until the cheese is all melted
    and the sauce is thickened.

5. Mix the cream sauce into the noodles and fake meat sauce.

6. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

7. Cover with 1/2 to 1 cup of grated parmesan, cook for another 5 minutes.

8. Broil just enough to make parmesan topping golden brown