MOUSSAKA

It may be a Greek classic, but this hearty layered dish hails from beyond the country's borders - and its present form is a surprisingly recent innovation

- FELICITY CLOAKE

You’ll find moussaka, with its chunky layers of deeply savoury, sweetly spiced meat, silky aubergines and creamy bechamel sauce, on the menu at every whitewashed tourist taverna. No surprise, then, that it’s perceived by many visitors as Greece’s national dish. Some in the Greek diaspora, however, seem less convinced, with chef Peter Conistis telling listeners to the Ouzo Talk podcast that, “You might hate me but… it started as a Turkish dish”.

In reality, moussaka’s true origins may lie even further afield. In Kitab al-Tabikh, a 13th-century manuscript referred to in English as A Baghdad Cookery Book, there’s a recipe for ‘maghmuma’, or ‘muqatta’a’, consisting of alternating strata of aubergine and onions, spiced meat and fat, soaked in a vinegar-spiked gravy. And according to Charles Perry, an expert on medieval Arabic cuisine, the word ‘moussaka’ comes from the Arabic ‘musaqqâ’ (‘moistened’). It’s an etymology that aptly sums up the attraction of a dish sauced with olive oil, tomatoes and meat juices, all topped with a generous slick of bechamel — and that’s just the modern Greek iteration. In fact, versions of moussaka can be found throughout the Middle Eastern, North African and Balkan worlds under an array of different names.