Project Cookbook: Spanakopita

Spanakopita
Seasonal Food: How To Enjoy Food At Its Best With More Than 200 Recipes
By Susannah Blake 

Makes 6 servings, 296 calories per serving
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Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
18 oz. spinach
3 large eggs
7 oz. feta cheese drained and crumbled (about 1 3/4 cups)
Handful of fresh dill, roughly chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
5 oz. phyllo pastry dough sheets
3 tbsp butter, melted

Heat the oven to 375° F.  Grease an 8 x 10-inch baking dish.

Heat the oil in a large pot.  Add the onion and gently fry for about 5 minutes, until soft.  Meanwhile, wash the spinach well and shake off as much water as possible.  Stir the spinach into the onion, cover, and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until wilted.  Remove from the heat and drain well, pressing out as much liquid as possible, then leave until cool enough to handle.  Roughly chop the spinach greens.

Beat the eggs in a bowl, add the feta and dill and season well with black pepper.  Add the spinach and stir to combine thoroughly.

Line the baking dish with three layers of phyllo pastry dough, brushing each sheet with butter as you go, and letting the sheets hang over the edge of the dish.  Spread the spinach filling in an even layer over the phyllo, then fold up the overhanging dough over it.  Top with another three layers of phyllo, brushing each sheet with butter.

Using a sharp knife, mark the top with a diamond pattern, then bake in the oven for about 35 minutes, until crisp and golden.  Serve warm or cold.

My Thoughts:
Man, phyllo dough is a pain in the butt to work with!  The perfectionist in me was getting so irritated that the dough kept ripping and tearing all over the place, but as it turns out, it didn’t really matter that much.  Once the dish baked, I couldn’t really tell where the “crust” had originally ripped or where it got flaky in the baking process.  The flavors that hit me up front with this dish were the dill and the feta.  Oh, and I should add in at this point that I used 6 oz of feta instead of the listed 7 oz and my calorie count is based on that reduction.  Okay, back to the dish.  The dill was bright and summery, like a long, care-free Saturday in July… well, maybe not it Dallas in July, but somewhere where you can actually enjoy the summer months outdoors, like at the beach.  The feta almost made me think here was lemon in this dish.  It was citrusy and tangy and complemented the dish well.  The spinach-onion mixture could have used a tad bit of salt to bring out the sweetness of the onions and the earthiness of the spinach, but when combined with a nice chunk of feta, the feta did the trick well enough.  The egg bound this dish together quite well (literally).  Initially, I was concerned at how well the slices would stay together, but the egg definitely did the trick.  In the end, I thought this Greek dish turned out well and wasn’t nearly as scary to make as I would have thought.  So if you are thinking of going Mediterranean for a meal, try giving this recipe a shot!  Oh, and Nick had the leftovers cold and he said it was equally as tasty cold as it was warm.

Tagged as: cooking, food, Project Cookbook, Recipe