Wednesday, April 30, 2003

 
Well, the pasticio (or pastitsio or pasticcio...you get the idea) was not exactly a success. Well, I didn't like it, anyways. Leah and Pop said they did, but they haven't really had the real thing before so they didn't know what they were missing. First of all, the recipe was already altered so that it was lower in fat, but Leah was worried that it would still be too fatty for her gallbladder, so we substituted ground turkey breast for the beef. Mistake number one. Then, since I was trying to remember the recipe from memory while I was getting supplies at the store, I forgot that it needed white wine and regular tomato sauce and I didn't get any wine and got some pasta sauce instead. Mistake number two. Then the store didn't have the right kind of pasta (buccatini) and I made a snap-decision substitution and got penne rigate (with the ridges) instead of ziti or mostaccioli (smooth). Here's a good site that has all of the differences. That pasta soaked up too much of the sauce, I think. It also had the wrong texture. Mistake number three. To make matters worse, I didn't have nutmeg and added cinnamon instead (which wasn't so bad, since they are similar and I've seen plenty of recipes that call for cinnamon) and Leah suggested that I add the 1/4 cup of red wine we had leftover from Beef Burgandy to the meat in place of the white wine. Mistake number four. And in the bechamel, we used Eggbeaters instead of the egg whites it called for. Mistake number five.

The rest of the recipe we didn't mess with...what's left to touch, you may be asking? Well, I used the kasseri cheese it called for, which I didn't like because it has too strong of a taste (think really sharp white cheddar) and I layered the casserole the way it asked, which was a little meat mixture, then some pasta, then the rest of the meat and then the rest of the pasta on top, then pour on the white sauce and sprinkle on some cheese, which promptly sank to the bottom of the dish and left the top pasta to get crunchy and overcooked. The result was....bleh. The turkey didn't have much flavor and the white sauce was not fluffy and good, but kind of mixed in with the meat so that every once in a while I could get a taste of what it was supposed to taste like. The red wine was not a good flavor and the pasta was, like I said, kind of overcooked on the top.

I have some definite ideas for how to improve it next time without adding fat. For one thing, I'd at least get the right pasta and tomato sauce and wine. Then I'd either get ground sirloin or mix half turkey and half 4% lean ground beef, to add some flavor. I'd also use cornstarch instead of flour in the bechamel so it thickens up more. Finally, I would layer it with all the pasta on the bottom, then all the meat mixture on top of the pasta, then the white sauce. Most of the sauce would stay on top and wouldn't sink to the bottom to be soaked up by the pasta.

Better luck next time, as they say.




Jacki 4/30/2003