Pastitsio’s name is not Greek.
It comes from the Italian pasticcio, the name for a whole family of baked pies. In everyday Italian, it can also mean “a mess.” The word most likely reached Greece through the Venetians, who ruled Corfu and the other Ionian islands for centuries.
But what yiayia pulled out of the oven was pure Greek.
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Long tubes of pasta on the bottom. Ground beef simmered in tomato with cinnamon and cloves in the middle. A thick golden layer of béchamel on top, with a pinch of nutmeg.
Greek and Italian immigrants even carried the idea to Egypt in the 1800s, where it is still loved today as macarona béchamel.
In many Greek American homes, it was the dish for name days, holidays and every big family table.
So the name came from Venice, but the taste is pure yiayia.
Who made the best pastitsio in your family? And did anyone ever call it “Greek lasagna”?
