The Spanakopita is a very popular Greek pie in its country that is basically made with a filling of spinach and feta cheese wrapped in filo pastry. It is the Greek version of the Turkish börek.
The name is made up of σπανάκι (spinach) and πίτα (pie or flat).
It is quite easy to make and in Greece it is a kind of wild card because it is used for everything, for breakfast, lunch and even high tea, either hot or cold. In fact, it is quite common for large trays to be made with the portions already cut so that they can be used as they are needed.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 package of filo pastry (or 2, if that makes 8 sheets)
- 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of spinach
- 500 grams (1.1 lbs) of feta cheese*
- 3 eggs
- 2 purple onions
- 2 leeks
- 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons chopped dill
- Salt
- ground black pepper
- extra virgin olive oil
* Feta cheese is quite salty. If you like it that way, no problem. If you prefer soft, then you can use white cheese, ricotta, cottage cheese, etc.
First we are going to prepare the filling.
Cut the spinach leaves into small squares.
In a frying pan with a little olive oil, fry the onion and the leeks (only the white part) very finely chopped. When the onion is transparent, add the spinach and let cook until the water they give off evaporates. Remove and let cool.
We beat the eggs with the yogurt and to this mixture we add the spinach, the onion and the fried leek. Then we add the crumbled feta cheese (or whatever you have chosen). If the cheese is feta, then add the chopped dill and ground black pepper. If it is of another type, also add dill, black pepper and half a teaspoon of salt.
In a flat metallic and round or rectangular source, with low edges, that can go in the oven, spread the bottom with olive oil.
Open the package of filo pastry and separate the sheets into two equal parts. That is, if there are 8 leaves, 4 will be the bottom and 4 the cover. The normal thing is that a package has 8 sheets, but each manufacturer is different. If you see that they say that there are 4 sheets, you should buy 2 packages because it is normal to put 4 and 4.
We put 4 leaves on the bottom. With a brush we can paint each of them with olive oil.
Let's pour the filling on this bottom of filo pastry, spreading it well. On top of it, another 4 sheets, again if we want to spread them with olive oil (it is recommended because this way we prevent it from drying out).
We flatten the surface and with a knife we mark square portions of about 5 centimeters on each side. This way it will be easier to divide it later.
We preheat to 200 degrees (392 F) and introduce for 1 hour, approximately. You will see that the surface turns golden and then dark, it is normal.
We extract and we can consume, either hot or letting it cool.
In the north of Greece, olive oil is not consumed as much as in the south, so corn oil is more commonly used (north of Greece is similar in climate to Balkans) and they do not consume much feta either, being more common that they use a similar cheese, but not the same, called Tseligato, obtained from cow's milk.