Albania

I have to say I was a tiny bit skeptical of Albanian food, mostly out of ignorance I think. But I found Albanian cuisine to actually be quite healthy, tasty and to use a lot of the same ingredients my family cooks with on a day to day basis. With, perhaps, a more liberal use of mint; seriously, there was mint everywhere. It tasted good though.

For my Albanian meal I prepared a spinach Byrek, some meatballs, and Pasul.

To start with we have the Pasul, which is a very filling, thick bean soup. It had great flavor and would be great for the winter on a cold night. In fact, after a decent bowl of it we really didn’t need any other dishes, but we made a valiant effort and pressed on.

Next on our plates were the Byrek and meatballs. The spinach Byrek (or Burek) is a dish I will definitely be making again. It was, in essence, a pie with a phyllo pastry crust and top, and a filling made of fresh spinach, raw egg, and cheese. It was really, really tasty. The meatballs were also good, with lots of flavor and a good deal of mint (something the Pasul was also notable for).

I think this was probably my favorite meal so far. The Pasul was good, but the other two dishes were even better and I have linked all three below. Give them a try!

Pasul: kuzhinashqiptare.com/en/traditional/pasul-recipe/

Byrek with Spinach: kuzhinashqiptare.com/en/traditional/byrek-burek-spinach/

Meatballs, Recipe 6 in this collection: albaniantranslators.com/recipes.html