Saganaki refers to various dishes prepared in Greek cuisine and is named after the single-serving frying pan

Frying pan

A frying pan, frypan, or skillet is a flat-bottomed pan used for frying, searing, and browning foods. It is typically in diameter with relatively low sides that flare outwards, a long handle, and no lid. Larger pans may have a small grab handle opposite the main handle...

 in which it is cooked.

One popular example is an appetizer of pan-seared cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

. The cheese used in saganaki cheese is usually kefalograviera

Kefalograviera

Kefalograviera is a hard sheep milk cheese with a salty flavor and rich aroma. It is often used in a Greek dish called Saganaki, cut into triangular pieces, rolled in seasoned flour and lightly fried. It is very similar to Kefalotyri cheese and sometimes is sold as it.Kefalograviera has PDO status...

, kasseri

Kasseri

Kasseri is a medium-hard pale yellow cheese made from unpasteurized sheep milk with very little, if any, goat's milk mixed in, in Greece and Turkey...

, kefalotyri, or sheep's milk

Sheep milk

Sheep's milk is the milk of domestic sheep. Though not widely drunk in any modern culture, sheep's milk is commonly used to make cultured dairy products. Well-known cheeses made from sheep milk include the Feta of Greece, Roquefort of France, Manchego from Spain, the Pecorino Romano , the Pecorino...

 feta

Feta

Feta is a brined curd cheese traditionally made in Greece. Feta is an aged crumbly cheese, commonly produced in blocks, and has a slightly grainy texture. It is used as a table cheese, as well as in salads Feta is a brined curd cheese traditionally made in Greece. Feta is an aged crumbly cheese,...

 cheese. Regional variations include the use of formaella cheese in Arachova

Arachova

Arachova is a town and a former municipality in the western part of Boeotia, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Distomon - Arachova - Antikyra, according the programme Kallikrates, of which it is a municipal unit....

 and halloumi cheese in Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

. The cheese is melted in a small frying pan until it is bubbling and generally served with lemon juice

Lemon juice

The lemon fruit, from a citrus plant, provides a useful liquid when squeezed. Lemon juice, either in natural strength or concentrated, is sold as a bottled product, usually with the addition of preservatives and a small amount of lemon oil.-Uses:...

 and pepper. It is eaten with bread

Bread

Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...

.

Other dishes that are traditionally cooked in the pan include shrimp saganaki (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 γαρίδες σαγανάκι), and mussels saganaki (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 μύδια σαγανάκι), which are typically feta

Feta

Feta is a brined curd cheese traditionally made in Greece. Feta is an aged crumbly cheese, commonly produced in blocks, and has a slightly grainy texture. It is used as a table cheese, as well as in salads Feta is a brined curd cheese traditionally made in Greece. Feta is an aged crumbly cheese,...

-based and include a spicy tomato

Tomato

The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...

 sauce.

In many United States, Canadian and Australian restaurants, after being fried, the saganaki cheese is flambé

Flambé

Flambé is a cooking procedure in which alcohol is added to a hot pan to create a burst of flames. The word means flamed in French ....

ed at the table (typically with a shout of "opa!"), and the flames then extinguished with a squeeze of fresh lemon

Lemon

The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...

 juice. This is called "flaming saganaki" and apparently originated in 1968 at The Parthenon restaurant in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

's Greektown

Greektown, Chicago

Greektown is a dining and nightlife district on the Near West Side of the American city of Chicago, Illinois. It is one of many neighborhoods that make up the Near West Side community area, and is popular with tourists and Chicago residents alike....

, based on the suggestion of a customer to owner Chris Liakouras.

Etymology

The word saganaki is a diminutive

Diminutive

In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...

 of sagani, a frying pan with two handles, which comes from the Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

word sahan 'copper dish'. The Turkish word itself is borrowed from the Arabic صحن (ṣaḥn).