Moussaka ([musa'ka]; ,
South SlavicSouth Slavic languages comprise one of the three geographical groups of Slavic languages . There are around 30 million speakers of these languages, mainly in the Balkans...
:
musaka/
мусака, from , ultimately from musaqqaa "chilled", ) is an eggplant (aubergine)-based dish of the
BalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
and the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. Though it is part of all the
cuisines of the former Ottoman regionOttoman cuisine is the cuisine of the Ottoman Empire and its successors in Anatolia, the Balkans, and much of the Middle East.The importance of culinary art for the Ottoman Sultans is evident to every visitor of Topkapı Palace. The palace houses several kitchens that are built underneath ten domes...
and has an
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
name, in the West, it is best-known in its
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
form.
All versions are based primarily on sautéed eggplant and
tomatoThe tomato is a herbaceous, usually sprawling plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family that is typically cultivated for the purpose of harvesting its fruit for human consumption...
, usually with minced meat. The Greek version, which is the best-known outside the region, includes layers of meat and eggplant topped with a white sauce and baked.
Moussaka ([musa'ka]; ,
South SlavicSouth Slavic languages comprise one of the three geographical groups of Slavic languages . There are around 30 million speakers of these languages, mainly in the Balkans...
:
musaka/
мусака, from , ultimately from musaqqaa "chilled", ) is an eggplant (aubergine)-based dish of the
BalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
and the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. Though it is part of all the
cuisines of the former Ottoman regionOttoman cuisine is the cuisine of the Ottoman Empire and its successors in Anatolia, the Balkans, and much of the Middle East.The importance of culinary art for the Ottoman Sultans is evident to every visitor of Topkapı Palace. The palace houses several kitchens that are built underneath ten domes...
and has an
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
name, in the West, it is best-known in its
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
form.
All versions are based primarily on sautéed eggplant and
tomatoThe tomato is a herbaceous, usually sprawling plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family that is typically cultivated for the purpose of harvesting its fruit for human consumption...
, usually with minced meat. The Greek version, which is the best-known outside the region, includes layers of meat and eggplant topped with a white sauce and baked. Turkish musakka, unlike the Greek version, is not layered. Instead, it is prepared with sautéed eggplants, green peppers, tomatoes,
onionOnion is a term used for many plants in the genus Allium. They are known by the common name "onion" but, used without qualifiers, it usually refers to Allium cepa. Allium cepa is also known as the "garden onion" or "bulb" onion...
s, and minced meat. It is eaten with
cacıkCacık is a Turkish dish of seasoned, diluted yoghurt, eaten throughout the former Ottoman world. In Greece it is called tzatziki...
and
pilafPilaf, also called polao, pilau, pilav, pilaff, plov or pulao in their adopted languages , is a dish in which a grain, such as rice or cracked wheat, is browned in oil, and then cooked in a seasoned broth...
. There are also variants with
zucchiniZucchini or courgette is a small summer squash. Along with some other squashes, it belongs to the species Cucurbita pepo...
(courgette), carrots and potatoes. In the
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
world, moussaka is a cooked
saladSalad is any of a wide variety of dishes including: green salads; vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads. They include a mixture of cold or hot foods, often including raw vegetables and/or fruits.Green salads...
made up primarily of tomatoes and eggplant, similar to
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
caponata- Sicilian Caponata :right|210px|Caponata is a Sicilian aubergine dish, a cooked vegetable salad made from chopped fried eggplant and celery seasoned with sweetened vinegar, and capers in a sweet and sour sauce...
, and is usually served cold as a mezze dish.
In the usual Greek three-layer recipe, the bottom layer consists of eggplant slices sautéed in
olive oilOlive oil is a fruit oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. The wild olive tree originated in Asia Minor and spread from there as far as southern Africa, Australia, Japan and China. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and...
; the middle layer is ground lamb cooked with onion,
garlicAllium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion family Alliaceae. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, and chive. Garlic has been used throughout recorded history for both culinary and medicinal purposes. It has a characteristic pungent, spicy flavor that...
, chopped tomatoes,
herbA herb is a plant that is valued for flavor, scent, or other qualities. Herbs are used in cooking, as medicines, and for spiritual purposes....
s, and
spiceA spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, leaf, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for the purpose of flavour, colour, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth....
s (
cinnamonCinnamon is a small evergreen tree belonging to the family Lauraceae, native to Sri Lanka, or the spice obtained from the tree's bark...
,
allspiceAllspice, also called Jamaica pepper, Kurundu, Myrtle pepper, pimenta, or newspice, is a spice which is the dried unripe fruit of Pimenta dioica , a mid-canopy tree native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico and Central America, now cultivated in many warm parts of the world...
and
black pepperBlack pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is a small drupe approximately five millimetres in diameter, dark red when fully mature, containing a single...
); and the top layer is a
béchamel sauceBéchamel sauce or besciamella , also known as white sauce, is one of the mother sauces of French cuisine. It is used as the base for other sauces . It is traditionally made by whisking scalded milk gradually into a white flour-butter roux...
or egg custard (probably introduced by Tselementes in the 1920s). Each layer is cooked on its own and then they are layered in a pan and baked until the top layer is browned. Moussaka is usually served lukewarm, as it keeps its shape better.
In the rest of the Balkans, the top layer is often a
custardCustard is a range of preparations based on milk and eggs. Most commonly, custard refers to a dessert or dessert sauce, but custard bases are also used for quiches and other savoury foods. As a dessert, it is made from a combination of milk or cream, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla...
. Grated
cheeseCheese is a food consisting of proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. It is produced by coagulation of the milk protein casein. Typically, the milk is acidified and addition of the enzyme rennet causes coagulation. The solids are separated and pressed into...
or bread crumbs are often sprinkled on top.
There are variations on this basic recipe, sometimes with no sauce, sometimes with other vegetables. The most common variant in Greece may include zucchini, part-fried potatoes or sautéed mushrooms in addition to the eggplant. There is even a
fast-dayFasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. A fast may be total or partial concerning that from which one fasts, and may be prolonged or intermittent as to the period of fasting...
version in the Greek cookbook by Tselementes which includes neither meat nor
béchamel sauceBéchamel sauce or besciamella , also known as white sauce, is one of the mother sauces of French cuisine. It is used as the base for other sauces . It is traditionally made by whisking scalded milk gradually into a white flour-butter roux...
, just vegetables (ground eggplant is used instead of ground meat), tomato sauce, and bread crumbs.