It happens every year. For a few days or event weeks after celebrating Passover, that last box of matzahs lingers. It sits on your kitchen counter as you slowly work your way through it, and you are the only one working through it. No one else in the family seems to even notice it!

There are numerous dishes to make using these flat cardboard like boards of unleavened bread. A real favorite is the Ashkenazi standard, matzah brei (scrambled eggs with bits of broken matzah). I did not grow up with it and Constant Companion does not prefer it. Last week, I went the Sephardic way and made a mina or matzah pie (kind of imagine matzah lasagna, sort of).

Our family shared Passover in Columbus, Ohio, with the handful of Greek Jews living there. That’s where I was introduced to minas, both meat and cheese and spinach. It was not a dish in my mother’s repertoire. I think my Greek Jewish nona (grandmother did not make it).

More non-Ashkenazi Jewish recipes for minas circulate at the holiday time. A few years ago, I made the spinach and leek mina published by Leah Koenig, an Ashkenazi Jew who publishes recipes of Roman Jews extensively (see 29 March 2021 post). This year I went with Michael Solomonov’s “Mina with Ground Beef” (courtesy of the Jewish Food Society, https://www.jewishfoodsociety.org/recipes/mina-with-ground-beef ). Solomonov is a noted restaurateur and cookbook author whose origins are Bulgarian.  

Mina with Ground Beef. Preheat the oven to 400F. Brush the bottom of a 10-inch cast iron skillet or a baking dish with oil. Add one pound of ground beef* to a large skillet, break up and cook til browned, about 5 minutes. Add ½ diced onion, 5 minced cloves of garlic, 1 ½ tbsp. of kosher salt and continue cooking another 5-8 minutes+. Stir in the spices – here’s his secret, don’t know if his grandmother used these – 1 tsp of finely ground coffee and ½ tsp ground cardamom.

*I used ground turkey which does not break up as nicely as beef, but has much less residual oil.

+I added some finely chopped green and red pepper waiting to be used in the vegetable drawer.

Soak 4-6 sheets of matzah in warm water, just about 1 minute. Line the bottom of an oiled cast iron skillet or 8×8” baking pan with the matzah. Break up pieces to fill any holes. Spoon in the meat mixture and cover the top with the rest of the matzah. Press the edges to seal. Brush the top with beaten egg. Bake about 30 minutes. Mina should be golden brown and crisp.

This is a very tasty use of that leftover matzah still hanging around.

Of course, if you don’t have the energy left after preparing the holiday meals, you can always throw the leftovers into the food processer and make matzah meal. I do that, too.

PS,Thanks Constant Companion for our cover photo.