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Layered Eggplant Moussaka with Homemade Béchamel
My favourite moussaka: eggplant, meat sauce, kefalotyri and béchamel in alternating layers.
Cook 120 min. Total 120 min. ⭐ Medium
Seasons: All Seasons
Cooking methods: Baking / Roasting

The Story Behind the Recipe

For me, this is clearly the best version of moussaka. Just eggplant, without potatoes or zucchini, the same meat sauce I make for pasta and plenty of homemade béchamel on top. Instead of putting all the eggplant at the bottom and the meat in one layer, I alternate them as I would in lasagne. I prefer it this way and find that it holds together better. It is the best moussaka for my own taste, and I would not change it.

For the base, use a double batch of my pasta meat sauce without the pasta, together with my homemade béchamel. Prepare the eggplant using the same approach as my sliced papoutsakia and imam bayildi.

The Technique

  • Bake the eggplant slices until thoroughly softened.
  • Alternate eggplant, meat and cheese, finish with béchamel and let the baked moussaka stand for approximately an hour.
Ingredients

  • Eggplant: sliced, enough to cover two large baking trays during preparation

  • Olive oil, salt and pepper: for the eggplant

  • Kefalotyri: grated, for the layers and top

  • Homemade béchamel: from the linked recipe, enough to cover the assembled dish evenly

For the meat sauce

  • Ground beef: 1 kg, raw

  • Onions: 2 large, chopped

  • Garlic: 4 cloves, chopped

  • Chopped tomatoes: 2 cans or cartons

  • Tomato paste: 4 heaped tsp

  • White wine: to just cover the mixture

  • Olive oil: for sautéing

  • Ground cinnamon, cloves, allspice, salt and black pepper: to taste

Steps

Method

  1. Sauté the onions in olive oil with a little salt. Add garlic, then beef, breaking it up and cooking until coloured.

  2. Add tomatoes, tomato paste and spices. Pour in white wine to just cover, then simmer for approximately an hour as in my pasta meat sauce recipe. For moussaka, reduce to a well-bound sauce without excess free liquid.

  3. Arrange the eggplant slices on baking trays, brush with olive oil, season and bake at 180°C until very soft. Time depends on thickness.

  4. Prepare enough béchamel to cover your dish, following the linked recipe.

  5. In a deep baking dish, layer eggplant, meat sauce and kefalotyri. Repeat the eggplant, meat and cheese layers.

  6. Cover with béchamel and sprinkle with kefalotyri.

  7. Bake at 180°C for approximately 40 minutes, until the top colours.

  8. Let stand for approximately one hour before slicing.

Tips and Secrets

  1. The linked meat-sauce recipe uses 500 g raw ground meat. For this moussaka, make a double batch using 1 kg raw meat and double the other base ingredients accordingly.

  2. Reduce the meat sauce before assembling the layers so excess liquid does not make the finished dish difficult to portion.

  3. Let the baked moussaka stand for approximately an hour before cutting so its layers hold together better.

  4. For planning, allow approximately two hours for preparing and cooking the components and the final bake, plus about an hour for the moussaka to stand before cutting. Timing varies with the eggplant thickness and whether you prepare components in parallel.

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