Moussaka pasta bake

A fantastic fridge-raid meal

First of all, please accept my sincerest apologies for the day’s delay in getting this out to you. I’m based in the usually sunny Brisbane, Australia but this past week we’ve been awaiting the arrival of cyclone Alfred (formerly expected to arrive as a category 2 cyclone but thankfully downgraded to a tropical low by the time he eventually hit land). We lost a fence, the garden is a mess, we lost wifi, phone reception was next to none, and I didn’t have the digital means (or the mental capacity), to get this out to you yesterday. Thank you for bearing with me.

If you’re anything like me you might often find yourself with a few odds and ends in the fridge by the end of the week. Something along the lines of a few zucchini off cuts, perhaps a half an onion, the remainder of a packet of mince, and is often the case for me, usually a couple of small eggplants because I always seem to buy too many.

There is a certain satisfaction I get from utilising all of these leftover bits and transforming them into a meal, which is how this moussaka pasta bake came about. In truth, this is probably more akin to a pastitsio given the addition of pasta, but I really love the addition of classic moussaka veggies making this a one-hit-wonder, especially for my daughter Pia who loved this so much (a win!).

Moussaka vs pastitsio

If you’re unfamiliar with either of these dishes or perhaps you recognise both names but are unsure of their differences, let me quickly break it down.

Moussaka and pastitio (or sometimes called makaronia tou fournou), are both oven-baked Greek dishes. They both contain a mince mixture (I’d argue the mince recipe itself could be interchangeable between them), and are topped with a lovely, thick and a bit more set style of béchamel which when baked is (should be) quite different to what you find on a lasagna thanks to the addition of egg to the mixture.

Moussaka contains vegetables, most commonly layers of potato, eggplant and often zucchini, then mince, then béchamel. Pastitsio on the other hand doesn’t have the layered veggies, and instead uses a very wide tubular, long pasta (similar to ziti), some anari or mizithra cheese, mint etc before topping with that lovely béchamel.

This moussaka pasta bake is a riff on the two.

Pantry/long-life fridge staples I always like to keep stocked up on

The key to a good fridge-raid dish is having a few key ingredients on hand at all times. Having these staples on hand just enables you to take whatever fresh produce and protein you need to use up and work them into a variety of things. Some of my favourite pantry or long-life fridge staples I always like to have on the go are:

• pasta, OF COURSE!

• tomato paste

• canned tomatoes, or passata

• ready to go stock, or stock cubes

• flour

• olive oil

• dried herbs and spices (my favourites are dried Greek oregano, cinnamon, all spice, cloves, cumin, smoked paprika, sumac, Aleppo pepper, dried bay leaves)

• coconut milk

• a ready made curry paste - usually red Thai curry because it seems to be my version of Hoisin sauce

• soy sauce

• chilli oils

• Worcestershire sauce

Then a few things in the fridge like

• hard cheeses - Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano, anari

• guanciale, pancetta

• a lovely stick of salame like a finocchietto

• anchovies

• capers

• olives

Stock up on good staples and you’ll be hard pressed to cook a lacklustre meal at home again!

Why conchiglie

There are a plethora of fab shapes that work well in a pasta bake but for me one shape reigns supreme, and that’s conchiglie. This shape’s name translates to shells in English, because that’s what they resemble. I find they hold structure really well in a bake, and who can argue with those little pockets of love, as Danny Dyer so eloquently put it.

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The Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 300g conchiglie pasta

• 2 tablespoons salt

• 1 small zucchini, chopped into 1cm thick quarters

• 2 baby eggplants (or 1 small eggplant), chopped into 1cm thick quarters

• 4 tablespoons olive oil

• 1/2 red onion, finely diced

• 500g beef mince, OR pork mince, lamb mince, or a mixture - whatever you have on hand

• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

• 1/2 cup dry white wine

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley if you have it, otherwise go in with 1 tablespoon dried parsley, oregano etc

• 1 can whole, peeled tomatoes - strained from their juices

• 500ml beef stock

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1/4 teaspoon ground all spice

For the béchamel

• 500ml milk

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 65g olive oil

• 65g flour

• 1 egg

• 30g hard cheese of choice - I used Parmigiano Reggiano - finely grated

Method

1. Start by cooking the pasta until very al dente - about 6 minutes if the packet suggests 10 minutes. Drain and set aside, reserving a little bit of the cooking water for use later on if needed.

   The sauce

2. While you’re cooking the pasta, place the cut zucchini and eggplant in a colander and sprinkle over 2 tablespoons of salt - let this sit for 10-15 minutes, before rinsing thoroughly under water and patting dry.

3. Next in a large oven proof casserole, gently heat the olive oil and fry the zucchini and eggplant for several minutes until golden, before adding the red onion - allow this to cook again for a few minutes until translucent.

4. Make some space in the pan and add the mince, allowing this to brown almost entirely before adding a good pinch of salt and pepper.

5. Make space in the pan again and add the tomato paste - let this caramelise for a minute or so before incorporating with the mince/veggies mixture.

6. Add the white wine and allow this to reduce.

7. Next add the whole tomatoes, stock, parsley and spices - then simmer gently, uncovered for about 20 minutes or until the consistency of the sauce has thickened but not totally dried out. Check seasoning and adjust as needed.

8. Remove from the heat and stir through the cooked pasta - if you need to add a splash of pasta water to loosen the mix and help it all come together, go for it. Set aside while you make the béchamel.

   The béchamel

9. Preheat your oven to 190c/170c fan forced/375f

10. Add the cinnamon to the milk and heat gently.

11. In a separate saucepan, heat the olive oil until it glistens (a minute or so), then add the flour to form your roux, mixing vigorously with a wooden spoon/spatula.

12. Cook the roux for 3 minutes before slowly whisking in the milk - do this little by little until you have a thick and smooth béchamel - enough to coat the back of a spoon.

13. Remove from the heat - beat the egg in a small bowl and add a tiny amount of the hot béchamel to it, before then whisking that all back into the béchamel itself.

14. Season generously with salt to taste, and add the grated cheese.

    Cooking it!

15. Finally, pour this over the pasta in an even layer, and bake in the oven for 40 minutes until it’s bubbling.

16. As a final step (promise!), I like to switch the oven to grill/broil mode and finish the bake off for a few minutes so the top becomes really golden and lovely.

17. Allow the pasta bake to cool for 20-30 minutes before serving - I don’t know why but it’s so much better after a good rest (like moussaka and pastitsio!). Also excellent as leftovers!

18. Enjoy :)