zucchini moussaka a.k.a. noodleless greek lasagna, a.k.a. zucchini casserole with meat sauce and cheese sauce. it looked and sounded good, but explaining it to the girls in advance was a bit hard. never use the word bechamel when explaining a topping, kids think it sounds like chemicals or something.

of the three dinners for "greek week" that i made this week, this was my least favorite. the spices were a bit too mellow (read: bland) for my palate and i didn't like the bechamel recipe that was provided. i get that the top is supposed to be both cheesy and crusty and not melt into the rest of the dish, but just wasn't my favorite thing. plus, it was a lot more time consuming to make than i would have liked on a weeknight, and a lot of prep in three different directions.

here's the easy-sounding part: layer sauteed zucchini with meat sauce, top with bechamel, bake in the oven. easy.

here's the reality: make a meat sauce that has to reduce because it's very watery and you want it thick; saute zucchini while the sauce is cooking down, because you have a LOT of time for the sauce to cook down; then carefully time your bechamel to be ready the minute you're going to pop the dish in the oven because it will settle into a glue very quickly. at least with this recipe.

the fam loved it, loved it, loved it. ate so much there was nothing leftover. you've never seen kids eat so much zucchini in one sitting. but because the recipe requires three sets of instructions -- meat sauce, bechamel, assembly -- i'm going to make this a "by request" post unless there is a huge outpouring of comments. that isn't me trying to get people to post comments, just me conserving some energy.

fortunately there was another meal during greek week so it didn't end on a sour note. but that's for another post.

Labels: bechamel, greek, moussaka, zucchini

  ¶ Thursday, March 15, 2007