Meat and Macaroni Pie Recipe

This is sure to become your family's favorite, and is almost as easy as macaroni cheese to make. It looks good, smells good while cooking, but most of all, tastes great. It is very similar to the Greek dish, “Pastichio,” but this recipe is all-Italian. Wonderful in the winter, when the smell fills the house.

I prefer to use dried Rigatoni, but other shapes of pasta, such as penne or ordinary macaroni work just fine. This dish is also very similar to lasagne al forno, but a lot less steps, and the white sauce does not need to be made quite so smooth, so there are less steps. We are going to mix the two sauces, so it’s not quite so important to make the sauce perfect.

You will need:

Equipment:

• 2 saucepans for the sauces
• 1 large sauce pan for the pasta
• 1 colander
• 1 oven proof dish
• 1 whisk
• 1 wooden spoon

Ingredients:

• 1 serving Bolognese sauce (see spaghetti Bolognese)
• 1 lb macaroni
• olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 3 oz grated cheddar cheese
• 1 large bottle of wine
• For the sauce:
• 1 pint milk
• 2 oz butter
• 1 ½ oz flour
• 1 teaspoon dried nutmeg
• Salt and pepper

First, open the wine, pour and sip. You are now ready to cook.

Make the white sauce. Place the flour, butter and milk in a pan over a medium heat and bring to the boil, whisking continuously. Important – do not stop whisking. When the sauce comes to a boil, turn the heat to low and cook for another 10 minutes, Add the nutmeg and salt and pepper, whisk again and set aside.

You can either use a Bolognese sauce that you have made before, or make the sauce now.

In the meantime, cook the macaroni in boiling water for about 8 minutes. It’s important not to overcook it and it must be al dente. Drain the pasta, add the olive oil and crushed garlic to the pan, put the macaroni back in and toss. In this case, the quality of the olive oil is not quite so important, but it must be olive oil, not any other type of vegetable oil, otherwise the final flavor is affected.

Next, butter the baking dish and add the macaroni. Pour in the Bolognese sauce, then the white sauce and stir with a wooden spoon so that the pasta is well coated with the sauces. Sprinkle the cheddar cheese over the top and bake in a medium oven for 30-40 minutes, until the top is brown. Serve warm with fresh bread and salad.

Buon Apetito!