This recipe can easily be prepared in advance, and you have three options depending on how pressed for time you will be. The easiest way is to bake and reheat: let the finished dish cool down, refrigerate and pop back in the oven for 30 minutes when you’re ready to serve. If you have a bit more time, assemble the moussaka, refrigerate, and do the baking on the day. You can also freeze the unbaked dish for up to a month and bake from frozen (about 60 minutes at 180°C or until it’s cooked through).
The top layer of a traditional moussaka is a creamy and cheesy bechamel sauce. Typically sprinkled with a last dusting of cheese that turns beautifully golden in the oven, it’s a luxurious finishing touch to an already impressive dish.
Eggplants are notorious little sponges when it comes to liquid, especially oil. Our tips are to use as little butter as possible when frying the eggplants, or skipping this step entirely by baking them instead. After browning your meat, you can also pour off any excess oil before following the rest of the recipe.
Definitely. For the best results, assemble the dish but freeze before baking. When ready to serve, simply pop the frozen moussaka in the oven and bake for about 60 minutes at 180°C or until it’s cooked through.
While its origins may not be classically Greek, moussaka is well known as the country’s national dish. Found on every taverna’s menu, this recipe will invite the Mediterranean right into your kitchen with its classic combination of fried eggplants, a fragrant meat sauce, and a rich creamy bechamel.
While Greece is often the first country that comes to mind, it’s actually not where the dish originated. A 13th century Levantine cookbook suggests that it was first invented in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. Fast forward a few centuries to 1920, and Nikolaos Tselementes publishes the now legendary 500-page Greek cookbook where he dedicated an entire chapter to his take on the moussaka.
Some dishes taste just as good, if not better, the next day and moussaka is one of them. Leftovers are easily stored in the fridge for up to five days and need only a few minutes in the office microwave to transport you right back to a seaside Greek taverna.
Keep it traditional with a classic Greek salad, pita bread, or spanakorizo (rice and spinach). Lightly grilled vegetables, a fresh garden salad, or roasted potatoes are also great alternatives.
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