Okay, the first thing I should tell you is that I made an almond cream, instead of the pine nut cream. Pine nuts are expensive, and I had about 1/4 c. of sprouted (soaked & dried) almonds just waiting to be used up. I did get the idea from them though; they mention somewhere else in the book that they used almonds for pine nuts in a recipe. I’d be curious to taste the pine nut version though, because I thought the cream sauce came out a bit too lemony, and my changing the flavor profile like that could certainly be why. If making this with almonds, I’d recommend dropping the lemon juice from 3 tbsp to 1 tbsp. Though it was less noticeable when everything was mashed up on the plate. ; )

The second thing is the cinnamon. I was free handing it, and I forgot this cinnamon shaker gets crazy sometimes, so I ended up with more like a 1 – 1.5 tsp. instead of the 1/4 tsp. called for in the recipe. You could definitely smell it as the sauce was simmering, but it ended being really good and not overpowering at all. Of course I like cinnamon in savory dishes, so it was a happy accident for me.

Third, I don’t know if I made 1/4″ slices or not. I was pretty confident that I was until I was assembling, and then I wasn’t so sure. Maybe they could have been thinner? It all worked out. Also, I weighed out the pound of eggplant and zucchini at the store, but I bought a big bag of potatoes. So I just kinda approximated the amount based on what the first two sliced up like. I ended up using 4 medium potatoes.

Last, I cut the oil down a bit. After misting the pot that I made the sauce in, I just used some of the veggie broth to splash in when the shallots got dry.

And on to the pix!

First I sliced up all the veggies and got them roasting. The potatoes roast a little longer than the other two.

As soon as the zucchini cool, squeeze out all the extra water.

Shallots & garlic!

The sauce after simmering.

Almonds and lemon juice for the cream sauce.

Two layers of eggplant, potatoes and sauce and then half the bread crumbs & the zucchini.

Last layer topped with sauce and bread crumbs.

Smothered in cream sauce.

Looking good and smelling amazing.

Results:

This was really good. Like a wonderful vegetable lasagna, without noodles. I had never made or even heard of mousakka before, and apparently it’s a Greek dish that’s traditionally made with lamb, tomatoes, eggplant and topped with a cheese sauce. I even dismantled a piece of the leftovers and used it to make an AMAZING pizza a couple of days later. The only thing I would change would be the lemon, but that’s just my personal preference. It was yummy and made a lot!