Spanakopita

Spanakopita is a greek dish where a spinach & feta cheese mixture is stuffed inside or layered with phyllo dough. Though I have always wanted to taste this, I never got an opportunity to do so... but I tasted this Garlic Spinaci Pizza which had some garlicky spinach and feta cheese toppings and absolutely loved it, so I figured that I would definitely like the taste of spanakopita and decided to make it at home.

I've worked with Phyllo (or Filo) sheets before when making Baklava and they are quite easy to work with as long as some precautions are taken... These are extremely thin sheets and can very easily tear, dry up or turn brittle, but when covered with a damp towel and worked with quickly, one sheet at a time, they are quite flexible and easy to handle. What is good about these sheets are that they turn nice and crisp when baked and have very little fat in them and so are definitely a healthier option to puff pastry. The textures are different so they can't always be interchanged but some recipes work well with either of them.

My filling is not very traditional because I added some garlic, red chilli flakes and used a tomato-basil Feta but it was tasty nevertheless. These can also be made ahead, frozen and cooked when it's time to serve.

SPANAKOPITAS

Ingredients:
Phyllo sheets - about 10 to 15

Spinach (frozen) - 10 oz package, thawed and drained

Feta cheese crumbles - 4 oz pack

Onion - 1, chopped finely

Garlic - 3 cloves, chopped

All purpose flour - 1 tbsp

Eggs - 2 (I used about 1/3 cup Egg Beaters)

Red Chilli flakes - 1 tsp or to taste

Salt & Pepper - to taste
Olive oil - 2 tsp

Butter - 3 to 4 tbsp, melted

Method:

1) In a saucepan, heat oil and add the onions and garlic, when softened and edges are beginning to brown, add red chilli flakes and spinach .

2) Cook this with a bit of salt along with the tbsp of flour until the mixture is quite dry. Add some pepper to taste. Go easy on the salt because feta cheese is quite salty.

3) Transfer this to a bowl and add the egg and feta cheese and mix well. This is our stuffing.

4) Thaw the Phyllo sheets according to package directions and when ready, cover them with a damp (not wet) towel so they don't dry out.

5) Take a sheet of phyllo (keep the rest still covered) and brush lightly with melted butter and lay another sheet of phyllo on top. Brush the top with a bit of butter as well and cut it into 3 long strips.

6) Place about a tbsp of the filling at the bottom half of each strip in one corner and fold to form a triangle. Keep folding them over, alternating sides moving up the strip as you do so. The butter brushed on top will help seal it.

7) Repeat this for the remaining filling. Place the spanakopitas on a large baking sheet and brush tops with remaining melted butter.

8) Bake this in a pre-heated oven at 350F for about 45 minutes or till done, turning over once if the bottoms get too brown.