Pastitsio, Coach House Restaurant New York

Total Time: 4 hrs 55 mins Preparation Time: 4 hrs Cook Time: 55 mins

Ingredients

• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 cup butter or 1 cup margarine, plus
• 3 tablespoons butter or 3 tablespoons margarine, divided use
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
• 2 lbs lean ground lamb
• 3 cups tomato sauce
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (to taste)
• fresh ground black pepper (to taste)
• 7 cups light cream or 7 cups half-and-half, divided
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• generous pinch nutmeg
• 10 egg yolks
• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 1/2 lbs elbow macaroni or 1 1/2 lbs ziti pasta
• 1 1/2 cups grated romano cheese

Recipe

• 1 in a very large skillet or dutch oven over medium heat saute' onion in 3 tablespoons butter until tender. add garlic; saute' two minutes. add meat; cook over high heat, breaking up pieces, until browned. add tomato sauce, wine, parsley, bay leaf, oregano, basil, cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper. cook sauce about 20 minutes, stirring frequently, or until most of liquid has been absorbed. discard bay leaf; set sauce aside.
• 2 in medium saucepan scald 6 cups cream and the milk. meanwhile in heavy 5-quart saucepan melt remaining 1 cup butter. with wire whisk stir in flour until blended. gradually stir in hot cream-milk mixture, stirring constantly to prevent lumping. cook and stir about 15 minutes or until the sauce is thick and smooth. season with remaining 1 teaspoon salt and with pepper and nutmeg to taste. remove from heat; let sauce cool 10 minutes. in bowl, beat egg yolks with remaining 1 cup cream. gradually beat about 2 cups warm cream sauce into egg mixture. return egg mixture to cream sauce; stir until blended.
• 3 grease 1 large shallow baking pan (7-quart capacity) or two 13 x 9-inch baking dishes. spread half of macaroni in pan; sprinkle with half of romano. cover with half of cream sauce, smoothing it with back of large spoon. spread on all of meat sauce. top with layer of remaining macaroni, cream sauce and grated cheese. bake in preheated 400 degree oven 55 minutes or until covered with golden-brown crust. to serve in neatly cut squares, finish cooking at least 6 hours before serving. let stand at room temperature; if day is warm, refrigerate. cut in serving portions. to reheat, cover pan with foil; bake in preheated 350 degree oven 30 minutes or until heated through. makes 12 generous servings.
• 4 final note: if the 400 degrees temperature seems too high, lower your oven temperature. (i bake at 375 degrees for about 1 hour and 15 minutes). but again the temperature of 400 degrees is as the recipe appeared in the magazine. i am typing this from the original page, ripped from the 1983 magazine. the above 12 servings is correct according to the recipe, for the entire 7 quart casserole. keep in mind that these are high end restaurant servings and apparently the portions are huge.
• 5 but my experience has been that half the recipe is 12 servings. that is one 9 x 13 pan.