Meliz Berg served up a tasty halloumi pasta bake with bechamel sauce and sesame seeds on this morning.

The ingredients for the halloumi béchamel sauce are: 100g unsalted butter, 100g plain flour , 1.2 litres milk, 1 bay leaf, 150g halloumi cheese, finely grated, ½ tsp coarse black pepper, 2 tbsp dried mint, 4 medium eggs and 1 tsp sesame seeds.

For the pasta: 2 tbsp fine sea salt, 500g long tubular pasta (bucatini), 150g halloumi cheese, finely grated and 1 tsp dried mint.

For the meat filling: 3 tbsp olive oil , 750g minced beef, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tbsp dried mint, 3 onions, finely chopped, 1 tsp fine sea salt, 1 tsp ground black pepper and 50g fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped.

See recipes by Meliz in her book titled: Meliz’s Kitchen: Simple Turkish-Cypriot comfort food and fresh family feasts available from Amazon now.