The first time I tried spanikopita (Greek feta and cheese filo pie), I was sitting in Belgrave Square with a Greek work friend who had brought it back from Thessaloniki where her grandmother had baked it and frozen it for her. I still have never eaten anything quite like it, I always buy it when I see it in a restaurant/deli/cafe thing and yet nothing even comes close to how amazing that spanikopita was. This is my attempt at scratching the spinachy itch, but it pales in comparison. I use frozen spinach as its waaaay cheaper.
500g frozen spinach (leave to defrost for as long as you can)
2 finely chopped cloves of garlic
3 spring onions (chopped)
6 sheets filo pastry
3 eggs (beaten)
300 g feta
Take out your filo pastry so that is at room temperature when you start to use it shortly and set the oven to 180 (fan assisted). Fry your garlic in a pan nice and softly so that it doesn't brown too much, for a couple of minutes, just enough to cook it without that acrid raw garlic taste, then put to one side to cool. Squeeze out as much moisture as you can from the defrosted spinach and place in a bowl along with the cooled garlic, the 3 eggs, the spring onions and break up the feta and add it in as well. Season the mixture, though go easy on the salt as feta is such a salty cheese, those lots of black pepper goes well here. Also, if you have any parsley or dill it's good to chop some and add it in at this stage. Then get any kind of oven suitable dish providing it's not a huge roasting tin and start to lay the filo sheets one by one (season the filo slightly as you go) in a fan shape, so that you have the whole base of the tin covered and the excess pastry flapping over the edge. Then put your mixture in the middle and fold the flapping pastry back over the mixture in the centre.
Pop in to the oven and cook for about 20 minutes, just making sure that the pastry doesn't brown too much. If you take it out and the mixture is still a bit loose for your liking, just pop it back in!
Was bloody starving when this was ready so it's a post-slicing terrible picture....
500g frozen spinach (leave to defrost for as long as you can)
2 finely chopped cloves of garlic
3 spring onions (chopped)
6 sheets filo pastry
3 eggs (beaten)
300 g feta
Take out your filo pastry so that is at room temperature when you start to use it shortly and set the oven to 180 (fan assisted). Fry your garlic in a pan nice and softly so that it doesn't brown too much, for a couple of minutes, just enough to cook it without that acrid raw garlic taste, then put to one side to cool. Squeeze out as much moisture as you can from the defrosted spinach and place in a bowl along with the cooled garlic, the 3 eggs, the spring onions and break up the feta and add it in as well. Season the mixture, though go easy on the salt as feta is such a salty cheese, those lots of black pepper goes well here. Also, if you have any parsley or dill it's good to chop some and add it in at this stage. Then get any kind of oven suitable dish providing it's not a huge roasting tin and start to lay the filo sheets one by one (season the filo slightly as you go) in a fan shape, so that you have the whole base of the tin covered and the excess pastry flapping over the edge. Then put your mixture in the middle and fold the flapping pastry back over the mixture in the centre.
Pop in to the oven and cook for about 20 minutes, just making sure that the pastry doesn't brown too much. If you take it out and the mixture is still a bit loose for your liking, just pop it back in!
Was bloody starving when this was ready so it's a post-slicing terrible picture....
