Day 9 – Spanakopita
This Greek pie is a wonderful way to add a vegetarian meal to your diet. It uses filo pastry, which you can buy in Aldi these days.
Filo pastry dries out very quickly. This recipe uses up the entire roll of pastry, but if you are using smaller portions – or a smaller baking dish, you can store the remaining pastry for another time. Keep the pastry covered with a damp clean teatowel until you have used what you need, then return it, rolled up, to a plastic bag, and seal it before popping it into the fridge. It will keep for weeks in the fridge provided the bag is sealed.
This recipe serves 6
INGREDIENTS
1 bunch (about 320g) English spinach or silverbeet; 2 sprigs fresh dill, chopped; 4 spring onions, chopped; 300g feta cheese; 100g ricotta cheese; 40g (½ cup) finely grated hard cheese like parmesan or pecorino; 5 eggs; 2 tbsp dry breadcrumbs; ¼ tsp ground nutmeg; ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper; 60ml (1/4 cup) olive oil; melted butter or olive oil for greasing dish; 375g packet fresh (not frozen) filo pastry; 185ml melted butter, approximately
METHOD
Trim the roots from the spinach, or if using silverbeet, remove leaves from tough stems. Wash leaves and drain well. Coarsely shred the leaves and tender stalks of the spinach and set aside. It’s really important to make sure the spinach is as dry as possible so that the pastry does not get soggy.
Place the feta in a large bowl and coarsely mash with a fork. Add the ricotta, cheese, eggs, breadcrumbs, nutmeg, pepper and oil. Mix with the fork to combine. Add the spinach and set aside while preparing the pastry case.
Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease a 20cm x 30cm x 5cm deep baking dish.
Lay the filo out on a bench. Cover with a damp tea towel to keep it from drying out. Line dish with a sheet of filo and butter the filo. Top with another sheet of filo and butter and continue until about half the sheets of filo are used.
Using your hand or a large metal spoon, gently mix the spinach filling until thoroughly combined. Pour into the prepared pastry base and spread evenly. Top with remaining filo, buttering each sheet, ensuring the last sheet is well buttered. Trim any overhanging pastry and tuck in the sides.
Use a sharp knife to mark pastry top into diamonds, allowing the knife to pierce the pastry once or twice to allow air to escape during baking. Sprinkle lightly with water and bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until well browned and set.
Gently shake the pan and the spanakopita will slide easily when cooked. Cover with foil if over browning. Cool on rack for 15 minutes before cutting to serve.
COST
$8.80 for 6 people
i am going to try this, at our local farmers markets you can get a big bag of english spinach for $2, so i am always looking for uses for it as i love it.
I cooked this up for tea tonight – using the first hint harvested from our first family veggie garden – silver beet. So yummy. I didn’t have dill, so chucked in some parsley, and forgot the onions! Only thing is Filo should be renamed fiddlo!!