“Moussaka has it all,” Aglaia Kremezi said plainly when I asked the acclaimed journalist and cookbook author what accounts for the casserole’s universal popularity. The classic rendering, with its plush eggplant; dense, earthy potatoes; meat sauce that’s warmed by spices; and satiny béchamel lavished across the top, add up to cozy yet sumptuous festival food for indulging family and friends.
[This is] cozy yet sumptuous festival food for indulging family and friends.
But moussaka also ranges widely and has significantly evolved over time. Cooks throughout the eastern Mediterranean make countless regional variations with or without meat, hot or cold, spicy or just fragrantly spiced, and capped—or not—with lush dairy. In fact, Kremezi, who resides on the isle of Kea just off the coast of Athens, believes that the elaborate version that’s most associated with Greece didn’t exist before the 20th century, when famed Greek chef and cookbook author Nikolas Tselementes aggrandized the dish with influences from his Western culinary training. So moussaka as we know it is really a modern dish built from the ingredients and techniques that were introduced to Greece over centuries
