One of my long time favorite comfort meals is moussaka. I just love the warm spices of nutmeg and cinnamon in a meat sauce filling topped off with a flavor-filled bechamel.
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Moussaka
6
servings45
minutes3
hoursTraditional Greek dish with layers of eggplant, tomato based meat sauce, topped with a bechamel!
Ingredients
- Eggplant
3 good sized eggplants cut into 1/4 inch slices
Salt
Drizzle of olive oil
- Filling
1 Tbl of olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
1.5 lbs of 80 /20 ground beef
28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 Tbl tomato paste
Cup red wine
16 oz beef stock
2 Tbl of chopped garlic
2 cups of parsley
Tbl of dried oregano
3 bay leaves
Tbl sugar
4 tsp cinnamon
4 tsp nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
- Bechamel
5 Tbl butter
5 Tbl flour
4 cups of hot milk
Tbl nutmeg
1/2 Cup of parmesan cheese
Tbl white pepper
Tbl salt
3 eggs
- Assembly / Garnish
Panko bread crumbs
Fresh oregano
Directions
- Eggplant
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Layer your eggplant on a cooling rack over a baking sheet.
- Sprinkle salt on your eggplant on both sides and let it sit for 30 minutes to draw moisture out to keep your dish from getting watery.
- Brush eggplant with a little olive oil and roast in oven for about 20 minutes.
- Filling
- Heat olive oil in a large braiser / dutch oven / skillet
- Cook onions until translucent; add garlic (do not overcook)
- Add meat and saute until meat is broken down and still a little pink in color. (Add a little salt and pepper to meat while cooking)
- Add wine and cook for 2 minutes
- Add tomatoes, beef stock, tomato paste and stir well
- Add rest of ingredients, stir and let sauce slowly simmer for 1 hour until reduced. If sauce gets too thick, just add a little beef broth till filling is at a good consistency to layer
- Bechamel
- In a large sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat
- Slowly add flour, stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Do not brown the flour-butter mixture.
- Slowly pour in hot milk and whisk to combine. Continue to whisk until bechamel thickens and will coat the back of a wooden spoon.
- Stir in salt, pepper and cheese
- Take sauce off heat
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk eggs.
- Once eggs are well whisked, pour slowly and whisk rapidly into bechamel.
- Assembly
- Sprinkle some panko bread crumbs on bottom of 9 x 13 baking dish
- Layer 1/2 of eggplant on bottom of dish
- Next, layer meat sauce filling. Sprinkle cheese and panko crumbs on top of filling
- Layer the rest of eggplant
- Top layer is the bechamel. On top of bechamel, sprinkle more bread crumbs, cheese.
- Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until nicely browned on top
- Remove from oven, top with fresh oregano and let stand for 15 minutes
- Slice into individual servings. If you have excess sauce, you can layer bottom of individual serving dishes with sauce and then place serving of moussaka on top of that.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- You can exchange ground lamb for the beef for a different version
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