A delicious, typical Romanian recipe: potato moussaka cooked with only two main ingredients: potatoes and ground meat.
This Romanian moussaka with potatoes and ground meat is another one of my grandmother's recipes, another one of my childhood favorites.
No matter what my grandmother cooked (well, with very few exceptions) can be counted among my favorite dishes: chicken soup with semolina dumplings, chicken and pea stew, Romanian macaroni and cheese, or Romanian creme caramel, to name just a few, they are all recipes that talk about my childhood, that bring back memories, that comfort me and so on.
That was the way my grandmother cooked. With the exception of a few more festive dishes like sarmale - stuffed cabbage rolls or cozonac – Romanian sweet bread with walnuts, her dishes were simple, quick to make, very seasonal, and very cheap.
Recipe ingredients
Unlike most Greek-style moussakas, my grandmother's potato moussaka doesn't contain any eggplants.
Otherwise, you will need ground meat, preferably a mixture of ground beef and pork. My grandmother never ate beef, so it was only pork for us, but I prefer mixed ground meat for this potato moussaka.
Some onions, tomato puree, and spices, and you're done.
How to make Romanian potato moussaka?
- Heat the oil in a large heavy bottom pan or Dutch oven and fry the onions until translucent.
- Add the ground meat and fry until brown, breaking the lumps as it cooks.
- In the meantime, peel and slice the potatoes very thinly, preferably using a mandoline, which guarantees very thin and regular potato slices that will cook evenly in the oven. Set aside.
- Spice the cooked ground meat with sweet paprika, salt and pepper.
- Oil a medium and deeper casserole dish.
- Divide the sliced potatoes in 3 batches.
- Arrange one batch in the casserole dish. Cover with half of the ground meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Cover the meat with another batch of potatoes. Cover the potatoes with the remaining meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Cover the meat with the last batch of potatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Mix the tomato puree with a little water to make it a bit runnier. Pour the mixture into the casserole dish.
- Add more water to barely fill the casserole dish; the upper layer of potatoes should not be covered in water, though. Pour the remaining oil on top of the casserole.
- Bake the moussaka with potatoes for about 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Check the potatoes and prolong the cooking time if they are not soft yet.
- If the potato moussaka gets too dark on top, cover it loosely with aluminum foil. You should check after about half the time and cover the dish if necessary.
Other delicious bakes
Recipe
Romanian Potato Moussaka
Ingredients
- 2 medium onions about 150 – 200 g/ 5.3 – 7 oz
- 3 tablespoons oil divided
- 800 g/ 1.7 lbs ground meat a mixture of beef and pork
- 600 g/ 1.3 lbs larger potatoes
- 200 g/ 7 oz/ scant 1 cup tomato puree sieved tomatoes (See note 1)
- 1 teaspoon dried savory or thyme See note 2
- 1 teaspoon sweet ground paprika
- fine sea salt and pepper
- water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ 360 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Chop the onions finely. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large heavy bottom pan or Dutch oven and fry the onions gently until they are translucent.
- Add the ground meat and fry it until brown, stirring and breaking the lumps while it cooks.
- In the meantime, peel the potatoes and slice them very thinly. Use a mandoline for this task, it guarantees for thin and regular potato slices which will cook evenly in the oven. Set aside.
- When the meat is brown, add dried savory/thyme, sweet ground paprika, salt and pepper to taste.
- Oil a medium, deeper casserole dish with a little of the remaining oil.
- Divide the potato slices into 3 batches. Arrange the first batch of potatoes in a double layer into the dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with half of the ground meat.
- Arrange another double layer of potato slices on top of that, adding salt and pepper again. Cover with the rest of the meat and add the last batch of potato slices. Sprinkle with salt and pepper again.
- Mix the tomato puree with about 50 ml/ 1.7 fl.oz/ ¼ cup water to make it a bit runnier. Pour the mixture into the casserole dish. Add more water to barely fill the casserole dish, the upper layer of potatoes should not be covered in water though. Pour the remaining oil on top of the casserole.
- Bake the potato moussaka for about 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Check the potatoes and prolong the cooking time if they are not soft yet.
- If the casserole dish gets too dark on top, cover it loosely with aluminum foil, you should check after about half the time and cover the dish if necessary.
- Serve with pickled vegetables or salad.
Notes
- Not tomato paste or tomato sauce. Just plain pureed tomatoes.
- I always use dried savory I get from Romania or buy online, that gives this dish and many other Romanian dishes their typical taste. However, if you cannot find it, you can replace it with thyme. It is not quite the same, but it is a good and tasty substitute.
Sissi says
Beautiful, delicious-looking moussaka! You were lucky to have been brought up with "real" good quality food! Your grandmother reminds me of my mum who even when working full time never ever bought frozen precooked dishes (the only thing we were allowed to have once in a while was a takeaway pizza she didn't cook at home anyway and it was a rare thing) and who taught me how to recognise good produce at the market (well before the appearance of organic label I knew I should keep away from the produce which was too perfect- looking!). I hope you have been having wonderful holidays!
Adina says
Thank you, Sissi. I wish you happy holidays as well.