Spanakopita – Spinach and Cheese Pie

My first introduction to Spanakopita was in the 70’s when my dearly beloved and I spent 12 months travelling throughout Europe in our little 2 door Ford Escort station wagon. We were in Skopje in the Republic of Macedonia having a quick take-away lunch in one of the city parks. This triangular shaped pie was akin to a pasty made from very buttery filo pastry and filled with spinach and farm cheese (similar to cottage cheese). The taste of this extraordinary dish still lingers today whenever I think of the spinach, cheese and pastry combination. Our accompanying beverage may well have been the remains of a flagon of home- made Dalmatian red wine given to us by friends that we had visited in Gradac (Croatia) the previous week or it may have been a shot or two of rakia?

I had a few sheets of puff pastry left over from the sausage rolls made for the Red Sky Ride Cancer, fund raiser and also some goat feta cheese which was intended to be used for the Dux’s  18^th birthday -  so a pie recipe was on the agenda for the evening meal.  A quick trip the local IGA to get the few remaining ingredients and we had the makings for this superb dish.

There are many varied ways to make Spanakopita, small triangle shapes suitable for finger food, larger triangle as an entrée, a circular pie dish, or as a rectangular slice…...it’s a versatile dish and makes a great vegetarian meal.

Ingredients

150 gms Goat feta

250 gms Ricotta

2 eggs (for the filling and save some for egg wash)

1 bunch silver beet or 3 bunches English spinach

1 diced brown onion

4 cloves crushed garlic

½ tsp lemon rind

2 sheets low-fat puff pastry

Pre heat oven to 200C fan forced.

Line the pie dish with 1 sheet of the puff pastry and blind bake for 10 minutes then cool the pastry.

Remove stalks from the silver beet and blanch leaves for 5 minutes, drain and once cooled. squeeze the silver beat to remove any remaining water. Chop the leaves into 1cm dice.

Lightly sauté the onions just to soften and not caramalise.

Mix the chopped silver beet, ricotta, onion, garlic and fold in the lightly beaten eggs.

Season the mixture with pepper. (Tip - I avoid salt as the cheese mixture is quite salty.)

Fill the pie base with the mixture and add the top sheet of puff pastry. Brush the top with an egg wash and sprinkle the top of the pastry with some sesame seeds.

Bake at 200C for 20-30 minutes or till the pastry top is golden and slightly crispy.

Serve with a salad.

Beverage: Seeking advice on Twitter  - Thanks to  _ashul who suggested a Pinot Noir, sadly I didn’t have any in the house, however, I did have a Riparosso Illuminate 2006 Montepulciano d’Amruzzo. Any low tannin red wine would match beautifully with this dish.