Parmigiano-Reggiano | Chef Doru's Blog

After a lot of research, notes and reading a bunch of recipes of moussaka, here we go a personal variation:

3 lb of potatoes, mashed
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
1 lb ground beef
1/4 cup of red wine
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 tomatoes cubed
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
2 bay leaves
1/8 tsp ground allspice
salt and pepper to taste
approx. 1/2 cup of grated Parmigiano cheese

When the pan is hot, add the oil and using a wooden spoon, sauté the onions until translucent; add the meat and continue to sauté until lightly browned. Add wine, tomato paste, cubed tomatoes, garlic, cinnamon, bay leaves, allspice and mix well. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until all the liquid has been absorbed, about 40-45 minutes. After the sauce starts to thicken, take of heat and put it aside. In a big dutch oven, put one layer of mashed potatoes, one of meaty sauce, another layer of mashed potatoes and finally the last layer of meat and the final top layer of mashed potatoes. Some people would like all this with sauce bechamel, but me and my family we are not really a fan of that sauce, so we topped up the moussaka with a lot of Parmigiano cheese. For the mashed potatoes, we used some milk, sour cream and butter, but everybody can be creative and use whatever they have on hand or in the fridge.

RECIPE: Authentic Greek Moussaka (foodographer.net)
Greek Moussaka (cucinaceri.com)
Tasia’s Table (youvegottotastethis.myrecipes.com)
Gluten-Free Moussaka (cookinginthesun.wordpress.com)
Suzi’s Marvellous Moussaka (ekaterinabotziou.com)
Vegetables Moussaka (twolittlechefettes.wordpress.com)
15 Meals ideas for using ground beef (fabfoodfinds.wordpress.com)

This sauce was made after a lot of trials and inspired from different marinara sauces found on the internet. I think the results are amazing.

Ingredients:

250g bacon
2 medium onion, chopped fine
4 celery stalks, chopped fine
2 medium size carrots, chopped fine
2 bay leaf
250g mushrooms
10 cloves garlic
1 large can crushed & peeled tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp italian seasoning
250g bacon
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp of molasses
3-4 tbsp Tiranga – hot sauce
250g Barilla spaghetti (half package)
Parmigiano cheese

Directions:

Cut and saute the bacon in a large pan until crispy. Take out and set aside on a plate with paper towel. In the bacon fat left in the pan, saute for approx. 10 min the carrots, celery and onion on medium low heat until soft and season with salt and pepper. Add red wine and allow to simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients except the bacon and simmer on low for 30 minutes. Cook the spaghetti for 8 min in boiling water and put them on two plates. Spread the sauce on top of the spaghetti and sprinkle bacon and shredded cheese.