Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Spinach Pie (Spanakopita)

For a vegetarian option at Easter dinner, I decided to make a spinach pie. I first thought I would follow the recipe on GOOP (Gwyneth Paltrow's newsletter) using matzo for the exterior but wasn't confident it would work. Instead, I used leftover puff pastry in the freezer. To get an authentic Greek recipe, I headed to kalofagas. I was surprised to see dill in the filling but followed along. When I asked A if he remembered dill in spanakopita when he visited Greece last summer, he didn't recall that flavour but enjoyed this version the same.

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Spinach Pie (Spanakopita)
Adapted from kalofagas.
I used puff pastry because that's all I had at home but the authentic choice would be phyllo pastry. On kalofagas, he even makes the phyllo on his own! Puff pastry is the lazy choice and allows you to make this dish very quickly.

*oil
*1 bunch of green onion, sliced thinly
* 2 package of frozen spinach, thawed
* 2 eggs
* 225 g feta
* 225 g ricotta, set aside a bit for the topping, if you'd like
* handful of dill, chopped (optional)
* 1 package puff pastry, thawed

Cook green onion in oil until softened.
Squeeze the water out of the spinach and slice coarsely.
In a large bowl, add all the cooked green onion, spinach, eggs, feta, ricotta and dill.
Mix with your hands, breaking the pieces of feta.
Roll the puff pastry (if you're using squares that have not been rolled) into a rectangular shape.
Place the spinach mixture in the middle, leaving an edge around it and fold up the pastry around it.
Top with some feta (that was my sister's touch).
You can brush the pastry with egg, oil or butter (optional).
Tada!

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This was one of the Easter recipes that required the least labour!

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Great vegetarian option!

3 comments:

Peter M said...

I love the open-face presentation of your Spanakopita. Yes, dill is the usual herb in this pie and us Greeks love dill (besides the other usual Mediterranean herbs).

Glad you enjoyed the recipe, thanks for the link-luv!

Julissa said...

Hi anna.
I have a question, when you use the ricotta and you frizzed, how do you reuse again for avoid tha it damage?
kisses :)

Miss.Adventure said...

Hi Julissa,
Not sure if you have the wrong blog but I'm not Anna. To answer your question though, I just freeze ricotta in its container. I let it thaw out before use with no problems!