Firinda Makarna (Cypriot Beef and Bechamel Pasta Bake)
Ingredients
1.2 kg (2lb 11 oz) minced beef
2 large white onions, diced
2 bunches of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped (stalks and all)
20 (¾ oz) crushed black peppercorns
1.2 kg (2lb 11 oz) bucatini
350 g (12 oz) butter
800 g (1lb 12 oz) helim, grated
200 g (7 oz) plain flour
2 litres (3½ pints) full-fat milk
120 g (4½ oz) Parmesan cheese, grated
150 g (5½ oz) kasar peyniri or other stringy cheese, grated
a grating of fresh nutmeg
4 eggs
olive oil
sea salt
Directions
Preheat the oven to 170°C fan/190°C/375°F/gas mark 5.
First off, heat up a heavy frying pan with a glug of oil. Add the minced beef and fry for 10 minutes until it releases all of its moisture. The moisture will evaporate, and the beef will start to fry again. Fry the mince until it’s just starting to crisp, then add the onions and fry with the beef until soft. Add in the chopped parsley and season generously with salt and the cracked black pepper. Transfer the cooked beef mixture to a deep baking tray. That’s our bottom layer.
Cook the pasta in heavily salted water according to the packet instructions. Drain the pasta and cool it down in a colander under cold running water. Lay the cold pasta on top of the meat – it doesn’t really need to be neat, but you need to make
sure that it’s evenly stacked. Squash 100g/3.oz of the butter over the cooked pasta just for a little extra naughtiness.
Scatter 200g/7oz of the helim over the top, giving it a little mix so that it gets down to the bottom layer too.
The top is just a good old-fashioned bechamel sauce, heavy on the cheese. Melt the remaining 250g/9oz butter until it just starts to foam, then add the flour and cook gently. Using a whisk, make sure the mixture is moving. We basically want to cook out the flour so that our bechamel is smooth and thick. Add the milk, a quarter at a time; the first quarter will get completely sucked up by the roux. Keep stirring. Add the remaining milk when the mixture is getting too thick. Add in all the grated cheese and whisk until melted. Grate in the nutmeg, take the bechamel off the heat and whip in the eggs. Season your bechamel with salt so the cheese sings.
Pour the bechamel over the pasta and fill it to the top. Bake for 45 minutes–1 hour until the top is brown and crisp. Remove from the oven and let it sit in the tray for at least 15 minutes before portioning it.
I like to eat mine with a massive whack of spicy ketchup; a little hat tilt to the Cypriot cousins. LOVE x