This is an incredible dish that I find most people love - I make most of it the day before, and on the day of serving I just make the bechamel sauce, assemble it and bake it. It also freezes well.
Ingredients (serves 6-8):
4 biggish aubergines
1kg minced meat (5% fat, no more)
500ml vegetable oil for deep frying
7 medium potatoes
1 lt milk
100gr plain flour
100gr butter
3 slugs olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
2 onions
1 heaped tsp of cinnamon
1 heaped tsp of grated nutmeg
1 Tsp parsley
1 heaped tsp fine salt
1 tsp of freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp grated pecorino cheese (or hard salted ricotta)
2 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese
Method:
The day before, wash, dry and slice the aubergines along their length in thick slices (almost 0.5 cm)
Heat the vegetable oil as high as your hob allows, and start frying the aubergines until they reach a good golden colour - have plenty of kitchen paper ready to drain them, and ensure to layer it well (paper/aubergines/paper/etc)
Once all the aubergines are fried, use another plate and transfer them there, ensuring to use fresh kitchen paper and again layering it well between the aubergines - put at least 5 sheets of kitchen paper on the bottom
TIP: doing this the night before (leaving them resting at room temperature), allows for all the oil to drain overnight, so your moussaka will not be oily at all, but just flavoursome
Peel, wash and cut the potatoes along their girth in thick slices (0.5cm) then boil them in salted water
Drain the potatoes and leave them to rest (there is no reason to do it the night before, it's just handy to do so)
Chop the garlic and onions and stir fry them in a couple of slugs of olive oil in a wide pan until just golden
Add the mince meat ensuring to break it down well until well grainy
Add the spices, the salt and pepper but not the parsley and let it cook for 10-15 mins on medium heat, stirring every now and then to avoid it from sticking to the pan
Remove from the heat, add the parsley and stir it well, then rest overnight
TIP: aside from the fact that doing it the day before it's handy, doing this for the meat allows for all the flavours to mingle very well - obviously the meat needs to be kept in the fridge once it reaches room temperature
On the day of serving preheat the oven at 200 degrees C (fan)
Using a wide but deep oven tray, coat it with a couple of slugs of olive oil
Layer the potatoes in a single layer - once the layer is made, use any left over potatoes to fill in the gaps
Sprinkle the pecorino cheese all over the potatoes
Layer the fried aubergines (you'd have found them exuding some oil, so pat them dry before putting them in your tray) ensuring they overlap a little (sometime I use more aubergines to obtain a double layer, but that's just me!)
Sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the aubergines
Layer the mince meat and press it down well
At this point make the bechamel sauce using 1lt of milk, 100gr of butter and 100gr of flour following this recipe
As soon as the bechamel sauce is ready, spoon it all over the meat
Bake in your preheated oven for 25 mins, keeping an eye on it: some ovens brown more on one side, so if that happens just turn your tray around so that the top browns evenly
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