Long tubes of pasta layered with a spiced meat sauce under thick béchamel, baked and cut in tall squares.
What makes it pastitsio
Thick, hollow pasta — often sold specially for pastitsio — in one neat layer.
Minced meat in tomato with cinnamon.
A thick béchamel, often with cheese and egg.
Where it comes from
The name comes from the Italian pasticcio, a pie, and baked pasta dishes are thought to have reached Greece through the Venetian-ruled Ionian islands. The version now made everywhere, with a deep béchamel top, is a twentieth-century one — a sister to moussaka.