Pastitsio

There is a fabulous restaurant in Portland called Mother’s Bistro. Delicious comfort food served every day, and each month the restaurant celebrates a different Mother and that mom’s favorite dishes. The Cooking Light 2004 Annual Recipes cookbook spotlighted Mother’s and remade some of their famous dishes to contain fewer calories and less fat. Here is one of my favorites!
Filling Ingredients:

1 pound uncooked spaghetti
1 pound ground sirloin
½ cup finely chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup dry white wine
1 – 15oz can tomato sauce
½ tsp salt
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp black pepper

White Sauce Ingredients:

3 Tbls all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
3 cups 2% reduced fat milk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten
5 Tbls white cheddar cheese ( I believe I used jack cheese the last time I made this)
Cooking spray
¼ cup grated pecorino Romano cheese
Update - June 2013
I wanted to make this dish a little spicier and give it a bit of a kick.  So, I've begun adding red pepper flakes to the meat sauce mixture.  You could also add cayenne pepper if you don't have red pepper flakes.  I added 1 teaspoon of the flakes and it was perfect for us - but we like spicy!

Directions:
To prepare filling, cook pasta according to package directions, omitting fat and salt from water. Rinse with cold water, set aside.

Cook beef, onion and garlic in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until browned; stir to crumble. Add wine, tomato sauce, ½ tsp salt, nutmeg and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, or until thick.

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare white sauce, place flour and ½ tsp salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly with a whisk until blended, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer 10 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, set aside. Combine eggs and egg whites in a large bowl. Gradually add hot milk mixture to eggs stirring constantly with a whisk. I typically add about 1 tablespoon of the milk mixture at a time to temper the eggs until the eggs have warmed to a like temperature as the milk mixture. You don’t want to end up with scrambled eggs. You want the mixture to be smooth. Add 1 Tbls of white cheddar cheese and stir until blended.

Coat a 9 x 13 baking dish with the cooking spray. Spread 1 cup of the beef mixture in the bottom. Arrange half the pasta over the beef mixture. Alternate layers of beef, pasta and beef. Pour white sauce over the top of the casserole. Use a spoon or fork to “adjust” pasta to allow the white sauce to cover and go through the layers. Sprinkle top with remaining cheddar cheese and the romano cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting and serving. Yield 8 servings – 416 calories each. The individual servings warm very nicely in a microwave. I like to take the leftovers for lunch. Delish!