Moussaka should almost melt in your mouth. This means that time is a significant ingredient in this recipe.

So let us dive in and start off by making your tomato sauce. Finely chop an onion, a stalk of celery and fry for a few minutes. Now add some ground lamb (or ground beef, or for a vegetarian mince). Fry until the meat starts browning. Add a tablespoon of tomato paste, stir through and cook for two minutes. Add two cans of chopped ripe tomatoes, a glass of good red wine, two bay leaves and freshly ground pepper. Simmer for at least fifteen minutes. Season generously with salt to taste.   

While the sauce is simmering, slice your eggplant very thinly, lay the slices out on a kitchen cloth or paper, and sprinkle with salt. This will draw out the water. After fifteen minutes, turn the slices over and repeat. With a piece of kitchen towel, dry the slices. 

Can we skip this step? I would strongly argue against that. Taking as much water out of the eggplant will help it to later absorb as much of the tomato sauce later. So, for maximum result, there are no shortcuts.

Some recipes call for potato, and that is my preference as well. So, thinly slice a number of big potatoes. Preheat your oven to 160º Celsius (320º Fahrenheit).

Now it is time to compose our moussaka. Start off with a layer of tomato sauce; next a layer of egg plant slices (lightly overlapping); a thin layer of sauce and a layer of potato slices. Repeat until all eggplant and potato slices have been used. End with a layer off tomato sauce.

Place in the middle of the oven. Now it is time to make the topping sauce. You could choose to make this a béchamel-like sauce (butter, flour, milk, ground white pepper and nutmeg plus for a luxury version some egg yokes) or, for a slightly lighter version, simply use some Greek yoghurt (10% fat) with garlic, ground white pepper.  

Check the moussaka after 75 minutes in the oven, using a tooth pick or similar. 

Once the moussaka is soft, pour the sauce on top and return to the oven and turn the grill on for a nice browning effect. Serve while still piping hot. Kalí órexi!