Musaqaa (eggplant & tomato bake)

Recipe No.: A-8

Arab75 minServes 6

Musaqaa is a dish of fried or roasted eggplant and tomatoes, eaten hot or cold across much of the Middle East. In Palestine and the Levant it is often cooked with chickpeas and tomatoes without meat, while in Egypt fried eggplant slices are covered in a tomato sauce with garlic and peppers. It is different from Greek moussaka, whose modern form was created by Nikolaos Tselementes in the 1920s; the name itself reached the Balkans through Ottoman Turkish from an Arabic word.

Ingredients for Musaqaa

• For the eggplant
• 1 kgeggplant (about 3 large), cut into 1 cm slices
• 4 tbspolive oil and salt
• For the sauce
• 3 tbspolive oil
• 2medium onions, thinly sliced
• 4 clovesgarlic, chopped
• 1green sweet pepper, chopped (optional), and chili to taste
• 1 tbsptomato paste
• 1 canchopped tomatoes (400 g) or 4 ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 1 cancooked chickpeas (400 g), drained
• 1 tspcumin, ½ tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt and ½ tsp black pepper
• ½ cupwater
• To serve
• 2tomatoes, sliced, and chopped parsley

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220°C. Arrange the eggplant slices on trays, brush both sides with the oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, turning once, until golden and soft.
2. For the sauce: cook the onions in the oil for 8 minutes until soft and golden, then add the garlic and peppers and stir for 2 minutes.
3. Add the tomato paste, cumin and cinnamon and stir for 1 minute, then add the tomatoes, chickpeas, sugar, salt, pepper and water.
4. Simmer 15 minutes until the sauce thickens, and adjust the seasoning.
5. In a deep baking dish layer half the eggplant, then half the sauce, then the remaining eggplant, and finish with the sauce and the tomato slices.
6. Bake at 200°C covered with foil for 20 minutes, then uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes until bubbling at the edges.
7. Garnish with parsley and serve warm or at room temperature with flatbread.

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