♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Welcome to "America's Test Kitchen" at home.

Today, I'm making a wonderful Greek pastitsio, Jack's gonna tell us all about feta cheese, and Lan has an amazing recipe for braised eggplant.

We've got a lot in store today, so stick around.

♪♪ -If David Letterman had ever made a top 10 list of his favorite casseroles, I think this would have been at number one.

It's pastitsio.

It's a beautiful Greek casserole with noodles, two sauces, and it's so amazing to make and even better to eat.

And let's start off with the meat sauce.

We are using ground beef.

You can find different grades of beef, and we want a very lean beef.

This is 93 percent lean.

And that's because pastitsio is really, really rich.

So in this bowl here, I have a tablespoon of water.

We just need 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda.

And that helps meat to hang on to its moisture and also keeps it nice and tender as it cooks.

And 3/4 teaspoon of table salt.

Just using table salt here because it's going to dissolve very quickly.

Good enough.

All right, so again, this is 93 percent lean beef.

This is only 8 ounces.

That's all we're gonna need for this casserole.

Just plop that right in there.

So we're just tossing this, breaking it up a little bit.

Make sure that the solution is covering all of the meat.

Don't need to go crazy here.

I'm gonna set this aside.

All right.

So, let's start cooking.

Got a medium saucepan here.

I'm going to add about a tablespoon of vegetable oil.

I'm gonna turn this to medium heat.

We want that oil to just start to shimmer.

I need 1/2 a cup of finely chopped onion.

I'll probably only use about 1/2 of this onion.

So, to finely mince, basically, it's just like chopping, but you're making your cuts about 1/8 inch apart.

And then I'm gonna make my vertical cuts and then right across.

And then any big pieces, I'm just gonna rock my knife back and forth.

All right.

So that looks pretty good.

This is going to go into the sauce pan.

We're gonna cook this until the onions are just softened.

We're not really looking for a lot of color.

That's gonna take about three minutes.

And while those onions are cooking, I'm gonna go get my garlic.

I like to buy pre-peeled garlic in bulk, and then I freeze them.

That way, they can last a long, long time.

I only need three right now.

And I'm gonna let these soften for just a few seconds while I work on the spices.

And I'm gonna pre-measure these because we're gonna add them to the saucepan all at the same time.

So let's start off with a teaspoon of dried oregano.

And paprika -- a teaspoon of this.

This is just regular paprika, not the smoked or the hot.

Now we've got 1/8 teaspoon of red-pepper flakes.

And let me grab my pepper here.

So, I'll always grind a little bit ahead of time and just keep it right in this ramekin.

I'm gonna use 1/8 teaspoon of pepper, as well.

All right.

Now here's where the Greek flavors really come in.

We're gonna use 1 1/4 teaspoons of brown cinnamon.

Cinnamon is what gives this that really warm flavor.

And you'll find it in a lot of Greek dishes.

But it is amazing here.

I love that they use this spice not only for sweet, but for savory foods.

And then finally, mint.

Now, this is dried mint, which is spearmint.

You don't want to use peppermint.

It's really hard to find dried peppermint in the first place.

But if you did, you wouldn't want to use it here.

Spearmint is really what you want to use.

They're very different flavors.

And we need a teaspoon of that.

All right.

You know that this is gonna taste amazing.

So now let's get back to that garlic.

These have softened up just a little bit.

We're gonna use a rasp grater to grate the garlic.

And you can do that, usually, any time that you want to mince garlic or if you're gonna put it through a press.

I like to grate frozen, slightly softened garlic.

All right.

Best part of grating garlic is the wham!

And then all that goes right into the spices.

Okay, so, let's take a look at the onions.

They soften just a little bit.

Again, we're not looking for a lot of color.

So, now the garlic and the spices are all going to go in at the same time.

Cook this for about a minute, maybe up to two minutes, until it gets really fragrant.

Now, some tomato sauces will use quite a bit of red wine.

This actually only uses 1/4 cup.

And you want to use a red wine that you would enjoy drinking.

A Pinot Noir or something like that is perfect.

So, now we're gonna add that 1/4 cup of red wine.

We're gonna cook this until it's reduced, and the whole mixture gets quite thick.

It's gonna take about three minutes.

All right.

Now we're gonna add tomato paste.

This is 1/3 cup of tomato paste.

Then we're gonna add the meat mixture here.

Great.

And 1/2 cup of water.

It doesn't look very good right now.

That is accurate.

All this is going to come together.

Break up the meat into very small pieces as much as possible.

That is now simmering.

We're gonna turn this down to low.

I'll put the lid on.

I'm gonna let this cook until all those flavors melt.

That will take about 30 minutes.

♪♪ All right, let's check this.

It's been a half an hour.

And it has changed in appearance.

A lot of that liquid has evaporated.

We want the sauce to be quite tight.

So when we layer it in the dish, it will stay in one nice layer.

Now, you can make this up to three days in advance and keep it in your fridge.

So, I'm gonna cover this.

Slide it off heat.

Now, a pastitsio is topped with Béchamel, and Béchamel is also used to bind that pasta layer.

We're gonna start off with a little bit of butter.

About 2 tablespoons.

Goes right into a saucepan, and we'll put this over medium heat.

While that's melting, we need 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour.

A little bit of table salt.

We've got 1/2 teaspoon.

Grated nutmeg.

This is another one of those warm spices that really makes this dish special.

So, I'm gonna use a rasp grater.

And I need about 1/4 teaspoon.

I like to use whole nutmeg.

I don't like the pre-ground nutmeg.

I don't know what they put in there, but it doesn't taste like nutmeg.

There we go.

And a little bit of black pepper.

This is 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper.

And then I've got my garlic back out again.

This was frozen.

It's thawed a little bit on the counter.

Again, just using the rasp grater.

Make quick work out of that garlic clove.

Gonna add that in there.

All right.

So, let's check out our sauce pan.

The butter is just about melted.

That looks great.

So, I'm gonna add in the flour mixture.

No seasonings.

There we go.

I'll cook this for about a minute.

We're not looking for, really, any color change here.

We just want to get rid of the raw flour flavor.

Now, this is a basic roux here.

We've got equal parts fat and flour.

And a good thing to know with a roux is that the darker that it gets, you're gonna get a lot more flavor, but it starts to lose its thickening power.

So, again, we're just looking to cook off the raw flavor.

That smells amazing.

Just a little bit toasty.

Don't want to take it much farther than that.

And now I'm going to whisk in our dairy.

This is 4 cups of whole milk.

Start off slowly, and then once you've whisked quite a bit in, you can add the rest much quicker.

All right.

That's looking good.

Now we're gonna bring this up to simmer.

And then while that's heating up, I'm going to weigh some pasta.

I want to use 8 ounces of ziti.

Now, typically with pastitsio, you might find recipes call for Greek #2 macaroni.

That's actually the shape.

It's a long, tubular piece of pasta.

It can be a little hard to find.

If you can find it, great.

It works here really well.

But if you can't find it, ziti is perfect.

All right.

We've got some bubbling going on here.

Just give it a quick whisk, and then I'm going to add the pasta right into the Béchamel.

So we don't even need to cook it separately.

Let me stir that in, and I want this to come back up to a simmer.

Now, the great thing about this is, of course, it saves time.

I don't have to cook the pasta separately.

But some of that starch from the pasta is going to help to thicken the Béchamel.

So in the meantime, we can grate some cheese And we are using Kasseri cheese.

Now, this is a sheep's milk cheese.

Sometimes it's cow's milk, sometimes it's goat's milk, but it has a really beautiful nutty and tangy flavor.

So, this is 4 ounces.

That equals about a cup of grated cheese.

But if you can't find Kasseri cheese, you can use a 2:1 ratio -- two parts provolone to one part Pecorino-Romano.

Again, it's got to have that nice sheepy flavor.

There we go.

Let's take a look at our mixture here.

It's just about coming up to a simmer.

I actually just want to stir it so that the pasta isn't sticking at this point.

I'm gonna turn the heat off, put the lid on, and we're gonna let that pasta cook in that hot mixture for about 15 minutes.

♪♪ Let's take a look in here.

Again, the pasta wasn't simmering in there, just kind of steeping in there.

And it's just slightly softened, and that's perfect.

Again, we don't want to overcook it at this point because it's gonna continue to cook in the dish.

I'm gonna transfer this now to an 8-inch baking dish.

And I've gone ahead and sprayed this with vegetable oil cooking spray.

I'm leaving that Béchamel behind in the sauce pan here.

There's still a little bit on the pasta that's going to help to make it nice and cohesive.

All right.

I think I got all the ziti at this point.

So now I'm going to add a little bit of that Kasseri cheese.

Again, this was a cup total.

So I'm going to add 1/3 cup.

Just sprinkle it right over the pasta here.

And then toss this just so that the cheese starts to melt a little bit.

All right.

And now, speaking of meat sauce, just gonna dollop it over the top.

You can see why we wanted this to have a nice tight texture.

It's a very cohesive sauce.

I'll use the spatula just to spread that into an even layer.

Looking good.

Now, before I add the Béchamel, I'm going to add in 1/3 more of the cheese, and I will whisk that in.

This is going to help to tighten the Béchamel as well as making it just really cheesy and delicious.

And then I'm going to add one more ingredient -- one egg, and I'll beat it a little bit here.

That's going to help to tighten the Béchamel even further.

You got to be quick about that, though.

You don't want any scrambled eggs in your Béchamel.

So, we have our noodles.

We have the layer of the meat sauce.

Let's get that Béchamel on there.

Oh, yeah.

Nice big layer.

[ Sighs ] One more layer of cheese, because why not?

So, again, this is the remaining 1/3 cup of Kasseri cheese.

Beautiful.

Now, you can see how far up in the pan this is.

And that probably explains why I'm baking it on a rimmed baking sheet.

This is going to go into a 375 degree oven.

It's gonna stay in there between 40 and 50 minutes.

Gonna look for that top to get very brown.

♪♪ Oh, whoa!

Look at that.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!

All right, I'm gonna put it right here.

Gorgeous.

Bubbling.

So, obviously, I'm not gonna tuck into this right away.

I'm gonna let this sit for 20 minutes, let it cool down.

And, also, I want all of those layers to become more cohesive.

♪♪ As promised, 20 minutes, and look how nice and cool it is.

It's still hot inside, believe me, but it's cool enough to cut.

It looks just about good enough to eat.

Oh, you can see that layer of Béchamel there and then the meat sauce.

And, of course, we have all that ziti underneath.

I want to make sure I get a bite with everything on it.

Oh, my gosh.

It is so supple, and it's rich without being too fatty.

Now, I've heard that you can keep leftovers of this, but I've never come across any.

This is absolutely amazing.

And remember the keys to making pastitsio at home -- soak the beef with baking soda, use ziti, and cook the ziti in the Béchamel.

So, from "America's Test Kitchen" at home, an Olympian-worthy pastitsio.

♪♪ -When you do something for 3,000 years, chances are you learn something.

Yeah, you heard me right.

They've been making feta cheese in Greece for 3,000 years -- at least 3,000.

And we know this because there are references to making feta in Homer's "The Odyssey."

So if you learn anything during this segment, I want you to learn one thing -- buy the real deal from Greece.

Now, this isn't just about respecting tradition because you know I'm all about the flavor.

This cheese tastes better, and there's a reason why Greek feta -- frankly, any European feta, because they all need to follow the same EU regulations.

They must be made with a minimum of 70 percent sheep's milk.

It can be a blend of sheep or goat or 100 percent sheep.

American supermarket cheeses -- all the brands we tasted were made with cow's milk.

And there are really two problems here.

One is sheep and goat have twice as much fat as cow.

The other thing is that they have these essential fatty acids that cow's milk doesn't have -- the things that make it gamey and savory, the thing that makes it feta.

So, what do American manufacturers do to compensate for the fact that they're making something that doesn't taste like feta?

They add a lot of salt, and I mean a lot of salt.

And I usually like salty things.

It's just too salty.

So buy a feta made by the Greek tradition, and ideally, buy it from Greece.

Second thing is buy it in a block.

I know what you're thinking.

"I don't need to buy block cheese because I'm gonna crumble it anyway.

I should just be buying it already pre-crumbled."

There are two problems with that strategy, and it's not a good strategy.

Number one -- the crumbled cheeses are made domestically, so that means they're made with cow's milk, and they don't have that much flavor.

The second thing is in order to keep the crumbles separate, they're coated with cellulose, and it dries it out.

Now, if you're gonna take the shortcut, you can buy this brand.

This one we thought was passable, acceptable -- Athenos.

And the reason why it's better than the competition is you see here, the crumbles are actually pretty big.

And so the ratio of cheese to cellulose is a little better.

In some of the crumbled cheeses, frankly, it was more like feta dust.

So, what are we gonna do?

We're gonna respect tradition and remember what the Greeks have taught us.

We're gonna buy the real deal made from sheep's milk, and we're going to buy it in big, beautiful blocks.

♪♪ -When people ask me what my favorite kitchen gadget is, I often tell them it's kitchen towels, and they get this look on their face like they don't quite understand.

But what can I say?

I like to keep things clean.

And I like to have three different types of towels on hand all the time.

I like having these small microfiber ones.

They're good for cleaning up the counter.

They're good for wiping down the stove.

And they are a good emergency sponge if I've run out of those for washing dishes.

Next up are these French side towels.

They're nice and thick.

I often fold them off to the side of my cutting board, and I lay my knives on them.

They're also a good makeshift potholder when they're dry.

And I like using them for drying heavy-duty things like pots and pans because they're really absorbent.

Last but not least are these flour-sack towels, and they're huge and very thin.

So I like using them to dry my hands, and I like using them to dry delicate things like wine glasses or my good china, because you can really grasp the plate between the towel.

So it's not gonna fall on the floor.

Now, if I have a big cooking day, like around the holidays, I go through, easily, 10, 15 towels in a day.

And what I do is I put a hamper in the corner of the kitchen, and when one gets dirty or a little wet, I just toss it into the hamper.

[ Laughs ] And it's its own fun.

♪♪ -I grew up eating eggplant, braised in soy and ginger, and I just love that silky texture.

Today, I'm gonna share with you a little riff on that, and it's gonna be that same awesome texture, but with Mediterranean flavors.

So, I've got two eggplant here.

It's really important to find eggplant that are about 8 to 10 ounces apiece.

These are globe eggplants.

But you could use Japanese or Italian eggplant if you wanted, as long as they're smallish.

I'm gonna start by cutting bottom and the top from the eggplant.

After the top and bottom come off, want to cut this eggplant in half and then stand it on the larger flat side so that it's nice and steady and not wobbly.

And I'm gonna cut them into wedges.

What I'm shooting for is about 3/4-inch pieces.

And this shape is critical because it provides a nice swath of skin that holds all this flesh in place.

Otherwise, these can kind of fall apart.

So, the other reason you want to use small eggplant -- they have a smaller seed pocket.

As eggplants get larger, this seed pocket in here gets really big.

And it is the first bit that kind of disintegrates when you go to cook this.

One last bit of knife work.

I need to mince some garlic -- two cloves.

So, I like to smash the garlic before I run a knife through it because that bruising and damaging of the cells gets me kind of a stronger garlic flavor.

That looks great.

Next up, the spices.

And this is where we get all of that flavor.

I have a tablespoon of tomato paste.

I like to use the stuff in a tube.

I don't go through that much, and so when I get the cans, I end up just having to, like, leave it in the freezer and then throw it out a couple of months later.

Next, I've got paprika here.

I need 2 teaspoons.

I've got one teaspoon of table salt, one teaspoon of coriander, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon of ginger, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and last up, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin.

I know this seems like a lot of spices, but they blend together really well and you get this kind of smoky, sweet, earthy flavor.

It's fantastic.

I've got 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil in this 12-inch nonstick skillet.

And now that the oil is shimmering, I'm gonna add my garlic, and I just want to toast this out really gently.

I'm not looking for a ton of color.

It's only gonna take about 30 seconds.

This seems pretty good.

Next up, the tomato paste and spices.

And here I want to kind of smear that tomato paste into the pan, and that's to help break up any lumps of tomato paste.

I really want to make sure that paste is well-toasted and its flavor is getting infused into this oil.

Next up, the eggplant.

And it's okay that this pan is a little bit crowded.

It's not a problem.

I'm just gonna add 2 3/4 cups of water and crank the heat to high.

Once this comes up to a boil, we're gonna cover it and let everything kind of steam and braise simultaneously.

So this is looking great.

There's a nice rolling boil going.

I'm gonna now turn this down.

If I left it so that it was boiling this hard the entire time, the eggplant at the center would kind of fall apart.

So, this looks great.

I'm not seeing giant areas of bubbling.

I'm seeing just little pockets of bubbling, and that's all I want.

I'm gonna cover this.

And this is gonna braise for about 15 minutes.

About halfway through, I'm gonna come by, give it a shake.

At that point, the eggplant will have collapsed enough that it will sit in there in one single layer.

♪♪ So, this has been cooking for 15 minutes, and we're gonna keep cooking this eggplant while we turn this braising liquid into a glaze.

It's gonna take 12 to 14 minutes to reduce this liquid down to a couple tablespoons.

And every so often, I'm just gonna come by and give this a shake, make sure things are moving and cooking evenly.

While this is going, I need about 2 tablespoons of mint cilantro.

I think its flavor complements the spices in this dish really nicely.

The stems that are really small, like these guys over here -- they're fine in this dish.

They've got tons of flavor.

I don't see the point in throwing them away.

So I don't bother with stacking herbs.

I just kind of gather it all together in a tight bundle without actually crushing anything.

And then I run my knife through, first in one direction.

And then turn the entire bundle and come across one more time.

So, yeah, that's it.

This is more than 2 tablespoons.

So, it's been about 15 minutes, and this has really come down.

You can see how nice and thick that glaze is.

I may cut the heat and get this off the stove.

This smells amazing.

I just want to give this a quick taste and check the seasoning on here.

It might need a little salt and pepper.

Actually, I think the salt's pretty good, but I'm gonna add just a touch of pepper.

This dish looks amazing, so I'm gonna make a little plate for myself.

I really like to finish this with some fresh and cool flavors.

I've got a little bit of whole-milk yogurt -- just going to drizzle a touch on here.

It's about 1/3 cup for the entire dish.

And last up, that cilantro I minced earlier.

Oh, I can't wait.

This eggplant held together beautifully.

You can see all the pieces are still intact, and they have their shape, still, thanks to that skin.

And that skin is crazy soft.

And it's just tender and velvety and creamy and delicious.

I could have this for dinner with, like, some rice and that'd be enough.

It's so great.

And we've got a couple other flavor variations on the website.

You should absolutely check them out.

And whichever variation you try, just remember, be sure to buy small eggplant and cut them properly, braise them gently, and reduce that braising liquid into a glaze.

So, from "America's Test Kitchen" at home, a terrific recipe for braised eggplant with paprika, coriander, and yogurt.

-Thanks for watching.

You can get all the recipes and product reviews from this season and more on our website.

That's americastestkitchen.com/TV.