The atlas · A cuisine · Greece — the mainland and islands of the Aegean and Ionian Seas

Greek

Also Hellenic

Olive oil poured freely, lemon and oregano, wild greens and sheep's cheese, and fish grilled by the sea — food for sharing, slowly, outdoors.

Where it comes from

Greek cooking starts with what the land gives: olives, wheat and grapes, the old crops of the Mediterranean, with sheep and goats in the hills and fish from the sea. Olive oil is used lavishly — in the ladera, vegetables cooked in oil, it's the point.

Centuries of Ottoman rule left many dishes sharing names with Turkish ones, and the Ionian islands, long under Venice, still cook with an Italian accent. In the twentieth century, cooks trained in European kitchens brought in béchamel, and moussaka and pastitsio took the shape they have now.

The Orthodox calendar still shapes the week, with many fasting days when meat, dairy and sometimes oil are left out — which is why so much Greek cooking is built on vegetables and pulses.

Where in it

  1. AthensThe capital, where the souvlaki shop and the taverna set much of the country's everyday eating, and where the modern béchamel-topped moussaka took shape.SouvlakiMoussaka
  2. ThessalonikiThe northern port, shaped by Byzantine, Ottoman and Sephardic Jewish cooking and by refugees from Asia Minor — known for bougatsa at breakfast and spiced dishes from Smyrna.Bougatsa
  3. EpirusThe mountainous north-west around Ioannina, where shepherds' cooking made pies an art — hand-rolled filo round greens, cheese, meat or trahana.Spanakopita
  4. CorfuVenetian for four centuries and never Ottoman, Corfu cooks with an Italian accent — pastitsada, sofrito and bourdeto, a fish stew hot with red pepper.
  5. Santorini and the CycladesDry, windy islands of small, intense produce — Santorini's cherry tomatoes, capers and the yellow split peas that make its fava.
  6. CreteThe biggest island, known for its olive oil, wild greens, snails and barley rusks — cooking often held up as the model of the Mediterranean diet.Dakos

How it cooks

Ladera
Vegetables — green beans, okra, peas, artichokes — cooked slowly in olive oil and tomato and eaten warm or at room temperature.
Avgolemono
Egg and lemon beaten together and tempered with hot broth, to thicken soups and sauces.
Pites
Pies of filo, rolled at home or bought, filled with greens, cheese or meat.
Over the coals
Souvlaki, lamb chops, octopus and whole fish grilled over charcoal.
Ladolemono
Olive oil and lemon whisked with oregano, poured over grilled fish, meat and potatoes.

Always in the kitchen

olive oillemonsdried oreganofetakefalotyristrained yoghurthoneyfilogarlicdilltomatoesolivescaperswild greensyellow split peasred wine vinegar

Cook from it

Tonight, with what's good in October

Its classics

GreekMoussakaLayers of fried aubergine and minced lamb or beef in a cinnamon-scented tomato sauce, under a thick crust of béchamel, baked.No one here has made it yetGreekSpanakopitaSpinach and feta with spring onion and dill, baked in crisp layers of filo — as one big pie or small triangles.No one here has made it yetGreekSouvlakiSmall pieces of pork or chicken grilled on skewers, eaten from the stick or wrapped in pitta with tomato, onion, tzatziki and chips.No one here has made it yetGreekGemistaTomatoes and peppers hollowed out, filled with rice, herbs and their own pulp, and baked in olive oil with potatoes.No one here has made it yetGreekAvgolemonoChicken broth thickened with rice and a froth of egg and lemon, tempered in so it turns silky rather than scrambled.No one here has made it yetGreekPastitsioLong tubes of pasta layered with a spiced meat sauce under thick béchamel, baked and cut in tall squares.No one here has made it yetGreekHoriatikiVillage salad: ripe tomato, cucumber, onion, green pepper and olives, with a slab of feta, oregano and plenty of olive oil — and no lettuce.No one here has made it yetGreekTzatzikiThick strained yoghurt with grated cucumber, garlic, olive oil and dill or mint — cold, sharp and made for grilled meat.No one here has made it yetGreekDakosA hard barley rusk softened with grated tomato and olive oil, heaped with soft white cheese, oregano and capers.No one here has made it yetGreekBougatsaThin layers of filo wrapped round a warm semolina custard, baked, cut into squares and dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon.No one here has made it yet

How it got here

Ottoman times · from ConstantinopleMoussakaMoussaka's name comes through Turkish from Arabic, and dishes called by it were cooked across the Ottoman lands, from the Balkans to the Levant. The Greek version, layered and crowned with béchamel, is usually credited to the chef Nikolaos Tselementes in the 1920s.Moussaka →

Cooked here

No one here has cooked Greek yet.