After doing pasta bake for the first time, our family has not gone back to lasagna.

Here's your new crave worthy pasta bake.

It's got a pasta layer, meaty tomato layer, and a creamy, cheesy

béchamel on top.

You'll love the Greek inspired flavors of this pasta Bake.

It's pesto.

Let's get it started.

Layering flavors is what this pasta bake is all about.

We're going to jump right into making the ground beef layer.

A lot of complementary flavors go into this sauce.

We'll start by getting some onion and garlic chopped up, a dice of an onion

and a fine chop of a few cloves of garlic and ready to get cooking.

You know, the kitchen is going to start

smelling amazing when onion and garlic start off the show.

And that's the plan here.

Some olive oil into a frying pan over medium low heat and in with the onions and garlic.

Just a couple of minutes and increase the heat to medium high.

Before we bring in the star of the show, Certified Angus Beef, 90% lean ground beef.

We found this to be the perfect lean to fat ratio for a pasta, bake or lasagna.

Remember, if it's not Certified, it's not the best.

I like to cut things up into large chunks to allow steam to escape from more areas.

Allow it to brown on one side for a few minutes,

then start adding seasoning.

We'll start with a couple of teaspoons of salt and a teaspoon of pepper.

That's a good rule of thumb.

A teaspoon of kosher salt for a pound of beef and half the amount of pepper.

This wooden cowboy style spatula is a great tool for working ground beef into a pan.

Now we can chop things up into small pieces to cook the beef all the way

and mix the onion garlic into the ground beef.

When there's just a hint of pink left, I'll start adding the other seasonings

that make this uniquely characteristic of pastitsio, cinnamon, oregano.

And now we'll add some tomato paste.

I like to make a little room in the center

to get the tomato paste right into the heat before working it into the beef.

Then with the beef browned and the pan dry, it's time to add red wine.

Oh, yeah.

Red wine and beef are such good friends.

You should make sure they hang out as much as you can.

We can now load in the crushed tomato, some water and a hint more salt.

We'll let this simmer for a half hour.

For the most amazing meat sauce.

All right, Well, that's set on a simmering slow ride.

Will build our bechamel some butter into a hot pan to melt

and some flour to make a roux.

With a whisk, work things around for a couple of minutes to get the flour cooked

and you see, it foamed just a bit.

Now we'll introduce the milk.

I like to microwave the milk so it's hot to the touch

and then introduce it gradually into the roux.

I find this is the best way to avoid lumps.

So whisk until things are smooth and come to a boil.

Add more milk and repeat until all the milk is in.

We want this to simmer for about 10 minutes to thicken.

It's a good time to check on your bubbling meat sauce.

Give it a stir to let it know you care.

And we'll come back to the best smell.

Once it's thickened, we can add nutmeg, a hint of salt

and loads of pecorino cheese.

Spread the cheese into a cream sauce.

You want the cheese to melt gradually on its own.

So it's time to kill the heat on this and set it aside to cool

and let that cheese gently finish melting.

This is going to be such a delicious layer to make it even richer

and even more stable.

We're going to add a couple eggs into the bechamel.

Melt whisk quickly as you bring one egg in at a time so they don't scramble.

All right. On to our third layer.

It wouldn't be a pasta bake without the pasta.

Ziti is perfect for a pasta bake.

If you can't find ziti, penne will work.

But penne is usually just a little too big.

By the way, I'm just saying,

if you're not salt in your pasta water, we can't be friends.

We want to boil the pasta here for 4 minutes less than the package directions.

This will make sure the pasta doesn't become overcooked during your bake.

Now will stir just about a cup of béchamel with our pasta

and our three layers are ready.

Time to build our bake. Coat a large casserole pan

with some cooking spray before we build. In with our pasta.

That little bit of béchamel with the pasta

is going to firm up and make a great flavorful base.

Smooth the pasta layer and bring in the incredible meat sauce layer.

You want to keep the layers intact so spread gently and evenly.

Now our cheesy béchamel on top.

Pour is evenly as you can because you can't do a lot of spatula

smoothing here if you want distinct layers.

Finally, more pecorino to top things off nice and even.

And that's it.

Into the oven uncovered for 45 minutes.

I love making this recipe on a Sunday afternoon

and putting it in the fridge.

It's such a great dish to have for a potluck

or a gift for a neighbor in need.

If the top isn't brown like this, just put it under the broiler

for a couple of minutes.

Super important here that you let it rest

for at least 20 minutes so it can firm up and get fully set.

Your patience will be rewarded with slices

that come out neatly without falling apart.

Oh, look at that.

It's got the layers.

Pasta's perfectly

beefy that béchamel with the cheesiness.

Perfect. See you next time. The test kitchen.