Pastitsio is a Mediterranean type pasta dish normally made with ground lamb and a béchamel sauce, but of course with extra lean ground lamb being quite hard to source (unless you make your own), I decided to make my own adaption using extra lean ground beef and a low fat topping using fat free cottage cheese and eggs.

Pastitsio

Slimming Eats Recipe

Serves 4

Extra Easy – 1 HEa per serving

Green – 1 HEa per serving (when using a vegetarian meat substitute

Ingredients

• 450g of extra lean beef mince (or vegetarian meat substitute)
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic crushed
• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 1 cup (240ml) of passata
• 1 cup (240ml) of beef stock
• 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• splash of balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons of oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of sumac (optional)
• 320g of Mezzani Zagliati pasta (or use spaghetti)
• 4 eggs
• 4xHEa servings of Parmesan (4xHEa’s)
• salt and black pepper
• pinch of nutmeg
• Frylight or Pam spray
• 2 cups (480 ml) of fat free cottage cheese

Method

Spray a skillet over a medium high heat with some Frylight or Pam spray. Add the onion and garlic and fry to soften.

Add the beef mince and break up large lumps with the back of a wooden spoon.

Once browned, add the tomato paste, splash of balsamic vinegar, oregano, sumac, cinnamon and a little salt and black pepper and stir to evenly coat.

Add in the passata, beef stock and chopped tomatoes, bring to a boil and then reduce heat, cover and simmer until sauce reduces down and thickens.

Preheat oven to 200c or 400f (gas mark 6)

In the meantime add the pasta to a saucepan of boiling hot water and cook until al dente. Drain thoroughly, then add to a large bowl and mix in 2 eggs and 1 HEa serving of Parmesan.

In a separate bowl, add the cottage cheese, pinch of nutmeg, some salt and black pepper, the other 2 eggs and another HEa serving of parmesan and use a hand blender to blend until smooth. (or you can add it all to a conventional blender)

Now you can start to make up the pastitsio. Using a square deep oven dish, add a layer of half the pasta mix, then top with the meat sauce, then the other half of the pasta and then top with the rest of the meat mixture.

Pour over the top the cottage cheese mix and spread out evenly over the top with a spatula.

Top with the remaining 2 HEa servings of parmesan and place in the oven and bake for approx. 30mins. Pastitsio should be a light golden colour on top.

Serve with a salad or your choice of side vegetables.

Enjoy!!

The recipe above has been calculated for Slimming World, however for those of you following the Weight Watchers plan or another calorie controlled type diet. Below is the approx. nutritional information: