You bake bucatini under cinnamon-scented meat and a thick béchamel until the top is gold and the pasta has drunk the juices. If moussaka is the eggplant pie, this is its pasta cousin: a layer of ragù that tastes of clove, a bronzed lid, a slice that should hold.
It is Sunday food, nameday food, the dish you send to a house in mourning. Cinnamon and clove keep it Greek. The house will smell of nutmeg and tomato and you will have to wait.
Bake at 350°F until the corners bubble. Rest it twenty minutes so the slices hold. Cut with a sharp knife, straight down. The first piece is always a little ragged.
Method
- 01
Cook the onion in a little oil until it is soft and sweet. Add the garlic, then the beef, and brown it well, breaking it up so there are no pale clumps. Pour in the wine, the tomatoes, the cinnamon, the cloves, salt, and pepper, and simmer until the sauce is thick, about 25 minutes. Fish out the cloves — they've done their work — and the sauce should smell of cinnamon and clove, unmistakably Greek.
- 02
Boil the bucatini 2 minutes short of al dente — it will finish in the oven, and if you cook it fully now you'll have mush later. Drain it and toss with a spoonful of oil and a handful of the grated cheese, so the strands don't glue together as they wait. The pasta should still have a firm bite. Keep it handy; the assembly goes quickly once the béchamel is done.
- 03
Make the béchamel: melt the butter, stir in the flour, and cook 2 minutes until it smells toasty, not raw. Whisk in the warm milk, steadily, until the sauce is thick and smooth. Take it off the heat and beat in the eggs, the remaining cheese, a good grating of nutmeg, and salt. Taste it: this is a thick béchamel, closer to a topping than a sauce — it should mound on a spoon.
- 04
Butter a deep baking dish. Layer in half the pasta, then all the meat sauce, then the rest of the pasta — the bucatini standing more or less at attention if you can coax it, though a tumble is perfectly fine. Pour the béchamel over the top so it fills every gap and covers the pasta completely, taking a moment to spread it into the corners. That gold top is what people will remember.
- 05
Bake at 350°F until the top is gold and the corners bubble, about 40 minutes. You want a bronzed lid with darker spots where the cheese has caught, not a pale blanket. Rest it 20 minutes so the slices hold — cut too soon and you'll have a slump of pasta and sauce. Use a sharp knife, straight down: the first piece is always a little ragged, and the rest will come away clean.
