Pastitsio from Amy Sedaris' book I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence

I sometimes describe pastitsio as "Greek lasagna," since it has all the principal parts: pasta, tomatoey sauce, ground meat, cheese, and rich creamy goodness holding it all together. But pastitsio, in all of its Greek fabulosity, is something special. The name comes from the Italian pasticcio, a type of baked savory pies which may contain meat, fish, or pasta. Many Italian versions include a pastry crust,  and some include béchamel similar to the cream sauce in pastitsio. The word pasticcio comes from pasta and means 'pie.' Anyway, it's great for potlucks and get-togethers, and is a great cold-weather comfort.

Though there are many variations on pastitsio originating from the Mediterranean region (and even from Egypt), this recipe is Amy Sedaris' Greek family recipe. And I think its fantastic. For many other fantastic recipes and lots of vintage-themed humor, check out her book, I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence. As you probably would have guessed, I wasn't paid to say that.

As you can tell, pastitsio is NOT light on fat or calories, but that's why it's so great for sharing with a crowd. With a salad or a veggie, a small piece is plenty satisfying. This recipe makes a large dish; enough for 6-8 people, I would say.

Ingredients

Macaroni
1 (16 ounce) package ziti pasta
5 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup parmesan cheese or kefalotiri
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
salt and pepper
3 eggs, lightly beaten

Meat Sauce
1-1 1/2 lb ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 crushed garlic clove
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small can tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
8 ounces beef broth or stock
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper

Cream Sauce
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
3 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
salt and pepper
1 egg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. In a large pot, boil and drain your ziti, return to pot. Melt butter. Pour over ziti and toss. Add 1/2 cup of the cheese, the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Save a little of the cheese to sprinkle over the top before baking. Toss again and set aside. Let it cool a little before adding the eggs. Toss well.
3. To make meat sauce, brown meat in a frying pan until almost fully cooked. Drain off the fat and set the meat aside. Fry onion and garlic in oil. Add meat and remaining ingredients. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
4. To make the cream sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour and cook until smooth. Add milk all at once and bring to a boil, stiring constantly. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper. Let it cool, then stir in th beaten egg.
5. Add 1/2 cup of this cream sauce to the meat sauce and mix.
6. To assemble, use a 13x9x3 inch oven dish, buttered. Spoon 1/2 of the macaroni evenly on the bottom, then top with the meat sauce. Cover that layer with remaining macaroni. Pour on cream sauce and spread over the entire top. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and bake until a little brown, about 45 minutes.

We had our pastitsio with steamed veggies, and a salad with Greek vinaigrette (made by Mom) and a sprinkling of Feta. I followed Amy's winning recipe exactly, except for one thing. Instead of using ground beef alone, I used a "meatball mix" - a combination of ground beef, pork and veal that imparts a slightly more complex flavor. I'm not hating on the all-beef version, though. It's a classic, and I'm sure somehow my mixed-meat-method is offensive to the authenticity of the Greek dish. Overall I wouldn't even say that the difference is noticeable, so I would use what I hand on hand. Either way - Yum. I recommend pairing it with a robust red wine.

Quote of the Day: Tomato and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French; sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon makes it Greek; soy sauce makes it Chinese and garlic makes it good. ~ Jenny Morris

Aunt Lauren's Vegetarian Crock Pot Mushroom & Kale Stew with Quinoa

Way back in Crocktober, my lovely aunt Lauren (also the creator of this yummy fruit and nut quinoa idea) sent me her recipe for a crock pot stew involving fresh sliced mushrooms, a variety of dried mushrooms, kale, parsnips and quinoa for serving. She even mailed me a big box of dried mushrooms to make it with - is that sweet, or what? And while Crocktober is over, my love for the crock pot is not, so I'm going to share her recipe with you anyway.

Because I'm using a teeny 2 qt machine and we are pretty sure that hers is a 5-quarter, I cut her recipe in half. 2 quarts is kind of absurdly small, I realize, so it might make more sense for you to use the original, so I'll give you her original measurements:

Ingredients:

5 medium parsnips, peeled and chopped into 1-inch chunks

4 large leaves kale, cut lengthwise and chopped

2 cups veggie stock (or chicken)

2 tbsp cornstarch blended with hot water, as needed (about 2/3 cup)

1 1/2 large onions, chopped, or a bag of peeled "pear onions" from Trader Joe's

1 8 oz box sliced fresh mushrooms 

1 cup of mixed dried mushrooms 

1 can reduced fat cream of mushroom soup

1 smashed garlic clove

1 1/2 large onions, chopped, or a bag of peeled "pear onions" from Trader Joe's

Cooked quinoa, for serving

Fresh parsley, coarsely chopped, for serving

Directions:

1. Break your dried mushrooms up into smaller pieces (so you don't need to chop them later), and soak in 2 cups hot water for about 5 minutes. Drain, pouring carefully so as to remove grit while leaving mushroom liquor.

2. Combine all ingredients except kale, cornstarch and water in the crock pot. Cook on "low" for 8-10 hours. 

3. One and one half hours before serving, add kale. A half an hour later, stir in cornstarch and water mixture. Leave the lid cracked and continue to cook for about another hour to hour and a half to thicken.

Lauren is a very smart woman. The changes I made were more logistical than creative - So, just so you know, if you come home around 8:30 hungry and tired from work, you can turn the crock to "high" to hasten broth-thickening while you cook your kale with the quinoa on the stovetop instead of leaving that extra time for everything to cook together in the crock. It is probably better Lauren's way, but life happens. The only "creative" change I made to her recipe is adding a little fresh parsley for garnish, which I do recommend.

If you know where to find dairy-free cream of mushroom soup, you can easily make this vegan. And, if you're not the hugest fan of parsnips (like I know Brady isn't), you can use cubed potato instead. And I have to say, now that I know how easy and convenient is is to cook with dried mushrooms, and the rich flavor you get from the variety, I think I'll be working my way through this box in short order.

Quote of the Day: I travel the world, and I'm happy to say that America is still the great melting pot - maybe a chunky stew rather than a melting pot at this point, but you know what I mean. ~ Philip Glass

Crocktober: Mediterranean Chickpeas with Roasted Beets from the Crock Pot

I cooked two different things! At once! In the same crock pot! And since its the start of cold and flu season, one of those things is perfect for your daily dose (overdose?) of antioxidants and other healthy things. Enjoy it with crumbled feta and fresh parsley on top.

Beet juices will stain like no other, so don't make this dish when wearing.. I don't know.. a wedding dress?

Even I am getting a bit tired of stew, which is why I adapted a chickpea stew recipe involving balsamic onions and black olives to cook with as little liquid as possible, so it's more of a bean dish than a soupy one. The beets cooked on top of the chickpeas, just sliced in half and laid on top. This wasn't my original plan. I was going to do little Hersey's-kiss-type packets for the beets, but guess who forgot to get aluminum foil? I still think that the packet plan would work out great - a theory that I will test another day.

Ingredients:

1 bunch beets (usually 4 bulbs), trimmed and thoroughly washed

1 cup dry chickpeas (or about 2 cups canned or prepared chickpeas)

1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

A couple tablespoons coarsely chopped black or kalamata olives

2 tsp dried oregano

Feta cheese and fresh parsley for serving

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Aluminum foil (optional)

Directions:

[PREP: If you're using dry chickpeas, sort and rinse them thoroughly, then soak in plenty of water in the fridge overnight or for up to 24 hours, changing the water at least twice in this time. If you're using canned or prepared beans, just rinse and drain before adding them to the crock.]

1. Heat about 1 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, add onions and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in brown sugar, cover and cook until golden brown, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Add oregano and a couple tablespoons of water, and cover again until onions are deep golden brown (about another 15 minutes). Stir in balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, and an additional couple tablespoons water. Cover the pan and cook until the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat. Stir in tomatoes and olives. 

3. Spray your crock insert and pour in chickpeas, adding the onion mixture on top.

4. Thoroughly wash your beets. (You can peel yours if you want to, but I didn't).

Option 1: Cut pieces of aluminum foil that are large enough to completely wrap up each beet without much excess, taking care to be sure that they (probably) won't let any liquid in. Plop the packets on top of the chickpeas. 

Option 2: Slice your beets in half vertically, and rest them cut-side-down on top of the onion mixture.

Cook on high for about 4-6 hours, or until your chickpeas are tender and your beets are done. (Your beets are done when you can insert a knife into the top through the thickest part of the bulb with no resistance).

5. Remove beet packets or halved beets, and stir chickpeas in with onion mixture. Transfer chickpeas to a covered serving dish or individual bowls, (if you did packets, cut beets into wedges and) serve on top or alongside of the chickpeas. Garnish with feta and fresh parsley.

Pretty.

I am sure that my instructions about cooking with dry beans versus canned are probably tiresome for some readers, but every once in a while I get the mental image of somebody soaking canned beans (and ending up with hopeless mush) or trying to cook dry black beans (famous for their slow cooking) and ending up with tiny little rocks even after a full day of cooking. I hope that the dry-to-cooked measuring conversions are workable. Maybe I'm secretly trying to get you all to switch to dry beans. It's a conspiracy to save you money. Spoooky!

This will likely be my last post until next weekend, but I'll be back with a crock pot spiced apple cider recipe before Crocktober is out. This theme thing has been working for me. Hm, what rhymes with November...

Quote of the Day: Beets are the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent, not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious. ~ Tom Robbins

Crocktober: Crock Pot Zucchini Boats with White Bean, Swiss, Tomato and Herb Stuffing

I hear tell of fabled round zucchinis that one can buy at certain places, but since I was unable to find the round variety I just hollowed out your average medium-size zucchini and made a stuffing with white beans, tomato, and parsley. The advantage of using your typical zucchini is that if you cut these into smallish pieces, they would made super cute appetizers.

I don't know what my fascination lately is with stuffing food into other food. Maybe it's just that it's fun to do, cute to look at, or simply convenient. Whatever the motivation may be, stuffing food into other food works marvelously well in the crock pot. Also I (obviously) enjoy crocking things that most people might not think were crockable. This dish cooks much faster than your all-day crock-potters - about 3 hours on low - so it might be better suited as a weekend meal. Of course, like most crock pot recipes, you could also make this in the oven, but that would not be in keeping with the Crocktober theme and therefore I could not tell you about it until potentially much, much later. So I made in a crock pot, and so should you.

This recipe will be easier if you are using a larger crock than my 2-quarter, just in terms of surface area. If you have a bigger one, use that. I stacked mine, which was okay too.

 Obviously a can of beans, plus tomato and onion and pine nuts and all of this can't fit in the shell of one zucchini, but the leftover payout of this recipe - or really, the stuffing that doesn't fit - is a yummy bean salad. Things could be worse. But if you're not into that, I'd halve the stuffing recipe. And if you're making these to be cut up as appetizers, I'd cut down the bean-to-other-stuff ratio, upping the veggies and herbs. If you're serving them this way you might skip the cooking altogether, since of course cooking makes the shells softer.

Ingredients:

I zucchini, sliced in half lengthwise, scooped out to leave about a 1/4 inch shell

1 tomato, chopped and seeded

1 15.5 oz. can white beans, thoroughly rinsed and drained (I literally used "white beans," but you could use cannellini beans or chickpeas, roughly chopped since they're big)

2 tablespoons fresh parsley or basil, finely chopped, packed (I used parsley)

2 tablespoons onion, minced

1 (small) clove garlic, minced or pressed

1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese (optional)

1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted (about 2 oz.)

Salt and pepper

Nonstick cooking spray

Balsamic vinegar (optional)

Olive oil

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine tomato, beans, onion, pine nuts, parsley, about a tablespoon of olive oil, plenty of salt and pepper, and Swiss cheese, if you're using it.

2. Spray or lightly oil your crock pot insert. Be sure that your zucchini will fit in the crock. If the boats need to be shortened, it is much simpler to do so at this point than to do it after stuffing.
3. Spoon stuffing into the zucchini "boats," packing slightly, and rest them inside the crock. Cook on low for 2-3 hours.

4. Carefully remove from crock and serve. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar if desired.

A note about hollowing out the squash: It may seem like the best way to do this is to just take a spoon and scoop straight down the length of it, but it seems to me that there's a more effective way that is less likely to lead to dreaded Squash Breakage. Take a large spoon - like a soup spoon, not like a "Little Dipper" spoon - and take off just a thin strip from all the way down the pulpy section. Then, using the same spoon or a teaspoon, position the scooper parallel to the edge of the "boat" and scoop starting at the edge and moving toward the center. You can smooth it out afterward, but trying to take it all out at once will probably not work out very well.

Making this stuffing would have been a lot faster if I had my food processor here rather than in Western Massachusetts. If you've got one, mince the garlic and onion with the parsley, salt and pepper and oil, then add the tomato (halved and guts scooped out), and finally the nuts and beans, which you can chop or not chop.

About 2 hours in, I realized that these were not as cheesy as I would have liked, so I sprinkled more on top to melt in the remaining cooking time, which worked out fine. Obviously it didn't take a whole hour for the cheese to melt, so you could do this at the last minute if you wanted to. It's not pictured, but I did end up adding Balsamic, which I think was a good call.

These were tasty! Just the right amount of richness, with the Swiss cheese and pine nuts, and very satisfying. Next spring and summer I think I'll be making the no-cook version on the regular.

Quote of the Day: Vulgarity is the garlic in the salad of life. ~ Cyril Connolly

Crocktober: Marinara Sauce from the Crock Pot

Even though this is only the second recipe of Crocktober, I'm gonna go ahead and declare this the absolute easiest crock pot recipe on the planet. Okay, there is that extra thing where you have to boil pasta, but you can make a very yummy home-made sauce while you're not even at home. I think that's pretty cool.

Sometime last winter, I called my (Italian-American) Dad to brag about having made my very first meat sauce. He was mildly impressed, but I was super impressed, because to me pasta sauce is a basic necessity vital for the survival of the human race. Perhaps this is a slight exaggeration, but I defy you to find a person who does not, or has never enjoyed spaghetti in a red sauce. You can't. They don't exist.

I used fresh parsley and basil with dried oregano, but you could use all dried herbs or all fresh. With the fresh herbs, add them just before serving. Subject them to all-day cooking and they will lose their oomph, and possibly disintegrate. Also, if you're anything like me, it might seem like a good idea to chop the herbs ahead of time so you can just toss them in the crock when you get home, but resist the urge. The flavor will be much more fresh if you wait, and premature chopping generally leads to browned leaves, which is just sad.

This recipe makes about 3-4 servings. (I'm a hungry person, generally, so I never know for sure what other people consider a serving to be).

Ingredients:

1 1-lb., 12 oz. can crushed tomatoes

1 6 oz. can tomato paste

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves (lightly packed), chopped

1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves (lightly packed), chopped

1 tsp dried Italian herbs (using the fresh ones above, this is optional but recommended)

1/2 cup vegetable broth or stock

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

2 cloves garlic, smashed 

1 cup onion, diced

Grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese for serving (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients except for the fresh herbs and cheese in a 2-5 qt crock pot. Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours or high for 4-6 hours.

2. Add the fresh basil and parsley.

3. Serve (generously) over fresh, hot pasta (avoiding the garlic) and sprinkle with Parmesan or grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

4. Gleefully slurp your spaghetti.

My lens got a little steamy there on the left

This recipe is a good base for an arrabbiata sauce. Just add red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, a whole dried chile, Sriracha or whatever you like to use to heat things up. 

While I don't know the "rules" of marinara, I do know that you could add celery, carrots, or mushrooms to this sauce if you felt compelled. Celery and carrots are hearty enough to withstand all-day cooking, so it's one-step and you'll get lots of delicious flavor mingling. (Mushrooms are a little more delicate and should probably only cook about half that long). The only rule I do know is that since marinara is relatively thin in texture (compared to, say, a lamb ragu) it should be enjoyed with spaghetti, so save the tube-and-trumped-shaped pasta for the trapping of thick sauce, meat and veggies.

 P.s. If you're in a pinch and don't have the time to make your sauce, Bon Appetit recently did a blind taste test of store-bought tomato sauces, and Barilla Traditional Marinara came out on top.

15-Minute Penne with Tuna, Tomato & Black Olives

This dish wins in a lot of ways: It's nutritious, yummy, and super fast. Basically, the only downside is that it's way too much food for one person, which I guess isn't really a downside in and of itself. While leftover pasta never quite lives up to its former glory, I think this will make a very tasty lunch tomorrow.

Eating at my desk like the classy lassie that I am.

 I know some people aren't the biggest fans of black olives, and I can understand this. I hated them as a kid (except for when I was allowed to wear them on my fingers) and even now they are an occasional thing for me, but I feel like they really belong in this dish. If you're still not buying it, you can substitute for any other dark sort of olive, like kalamata, if you prefer. And if you still need convincing, I say this: They're good for you! No, seriously. Olives (which are technically fruits... weird) contain anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and anti-cancerous phytonutrients. So maybe give them another chance?

Ingredients:

1 cup (or to taste) sliced black olives 

1 can diced tomatoes (I used "Italian herbs," but you can use plain or another herby variety)

1 can solid white albacore tuna, drained

1 1/2 cups penne pasta

1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

3ish sprigs of fresh parsley

Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Cook your pasta according to the package directions.

2. Meanwhile, heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the garlic over medium heat and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Add tomato, olives, tuna (breaking it apart), and a little salt and pepper. Cook over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes, or until the pasta is done, whichever comes first.

3. Drain your pasta, then add the tomato mixture to the pasta and toss.

4. Transfer the pasta to a bowl or serving dish, and garnish with parsley. Serve with grated Parmesan, if you like, and enjoy immediately.

I went very simple with the herbs, but you could certainly add some dried oregano and/or basil to the tomato mixture, or garnish with other fresh herbs in place of or in addition to the parsley. This dish feels "real" - yummy, but healthy and hearty - and is very easy at the end of a long day.

Obviously I tore up the parsley about twelve seconds later, but it looked pretty there for a sec, right? Also that is my 21st birthday happening in the background, in case you were wondering.

Quote of the Day: Except the vine, there is no plant which bears a fruit of as great importance as the olive. ~ Pliny the Elder