Greek Recipes

Village Greek salad in all its glory - Click to Enlarge Image Exactly when the tomato arrived in Greece is a matter of conjecture; there are various apocryphal anecdotes and references but nothing definitive. One thing is certain; it arrived sometime after Columbus returned from the New World in 1493. The tomato is native to the Americas and was introduced to Europe after the Discovery made by the great 15 th Century navigator on his celebrated voyage across the Atlantic . If Christopher Columbus was of Greek origin as some claim, it may have arrived in Greece earlier than commonly supposed. In any case, the tomato qua tomato has been a part of European and Greek recipes for no more than a few centuries all told. It is downright astonishing how this species of nightshade spread and insinuated itself into the national cuisines of the European continent in such a relatively short time. After all, where would Italian cooking be without the tomato? How about the Spanish food fig

A hearty Greek recipe from Cyprus - Click to Enlarge Image This dish requires no introduction to our Cypriot friends, and though yiouvetsi [γιουβέτσι in Gk., pronounced “yoo-VE-tsee”] dishes are common fare throughout Greece, this variation employing ground meat is from Cyprus. As the 1st of October is Cypriot Independence Day, and since I was unable to attend the reception held by the Consulate General of the Republic of Cyprus here in Toronto due to a nasty cold, I thought I might whip up a dish to belatedly commemorate the occasion in absentia , as it were. We are now in the Autumn season here in the Northern Hemisphere, and this recipe is a representative Greek comfort food that is easy to make and even easier to eat during the increasingly colder and shorter days that are upon us. The term “ yiouvetsi ” can best be translated as ‘casserole’ and the name is derived from the type of earthenware vessel that is traditionally used to bake it; a deep two-handled round clay dish.