Spanakopita (Greece)

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SPANAKOPITA

 

Spinach was never like this when I was little, but would that it had been!

This puffy, golden-brown pastry is worth the effort of going to a Greek shop

for filo (a Greek pastry) and Feta cheese.

 

2 lb. fresh spinach

1 lb. filo

7 eggs

½ lb. Feta cheese

1 onion

olive oil

salt

pepper

oregano

butter

 

To prepare the filling : wash all the spinach well and put the leaves into a

large bowl. Sprinkle them heavily with salt and then rub it into the leaves

with your hands as you tear them into small pieces. After a few minutes of

this, the spinach will be reduced to a quarter of its former bulk. Rinse the

salt off thoroughly and drain.

Beat the eggs, crumble the Feta cheese, and mix together. Add to the

spinach. Chop the onion, sauté it in some olive oil until it begins to

brown, and add that to the spinach also. Season the mixture with lots of

fresh-ground black pepper and a little oregano.

Now choose a large, oblong casserole or baking dish (about 9-inch by 13-inch

should do it and butter it. Melt about 3 to 4 tablespoons of butter in a

little pot and stack the pound of filo on a flat surface. Brush the top

sheet with melted butter and fit it into the baking dish, with the edges

hanging over the sides. The pastry sheets are very large and should extend

quite a bit over the edges, even after being fitted against the sides of the

dish. Continue in this fashion, brushing each sheet with butter and fitting

it into the pan on top of the others. Turn each sheet slightly so that the

corners fan out around the pan rather than being stacked on top of each

other. Do this until you only have two or three pastry sheets left.

Now pour the filling in and the fold over the ends of the pastry sheets to

cover it, brushing with a little more butter. You should have a sort of

strange-looking, wrinkled crust on top when you finish. Butter the remining

sheets and place them on top of the whole thing, folding them down to the

size of the dish. With a sharp knife cut through the top layers to the

filling in about three places. Brush the top with butter and bake at 375 ºF,

gas 5, for 50 minutes. Cut into squares and serve very hot.

 

Serves 8 generously.

 

country : Greece

course : vegetable dish

 

source : The Vegetarian Epicure / Anna Thomas

 

 

 

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