How to make Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie)
For dough
- 500 g hard flour or all-purpose flour
- 100 ml olive oil
- 20 ml white wine vinegar
- 10 g granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 210 ml water
- 200 ml olive oil, for brushing
For filling
- some olive oil
- 3 spring onions, coarsely chopped
- 1 kilo spinach
- ½ bunch mint, coarsely chopped
- 1 bunch Mediterranean hartwort, coarsely chopped
- 4 springs fresh oregano
- 1/3 bunch dill
- grated zest of 1 lemon
- 500 g feta cheese, crumbled
- 200 g cream cheese
- a generous amount of freshly ground pepper
- salt
For the dough
- Beat the flour, olive oil, vinegar, sugar, salt and water for 5 minutes in a mixer, using the hook attachment.
- If you don’t have a mixer, mix with your hands and knead for 5 minutes.
- When the dough comes together nicely and it pulls away from the sides of the bowl, it is ready.
- The dough should be soft and elastic. If it is not, beat for another 5 minutes.
- When ready, transfer to another bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set it aside to rest for 30 minutes.
For the filling
- Place a nonstick pan over medium to high heat.
- Add a little olive oil and the spring onions.
- Sauté until they soften.
- Tear up the spinach with your hands and add to the pan.
- Sauté until it softens and all of the liquid evaporates.
- Transfer to a bowl.
- Add the mint, hartwort, oregano, dill, lemon zest, feta cheese, cream cheese, salt and a generous amount of freshly ground pepper.
- Stir and your filling is ready!
How to roll out phyllo dough
- Preheat oven to 190* C (374* F) Fan.
- When the dough is ready, transfer to your working surface and divide in to 6 equal parts.
- Sprinkle some semolina on to your working surface and start to roll out the first of the 6 pieces of dough. You want it to become as thin as possible.
- If your dough is too sticky, sprinkle with some more semolina and continue rolling out.
- Always roll the rolling pin towards you to spread the dough out further.
- Continue rolling out the pieces of dough in the same manner. The first five don’t have to be perfect but the last one should be as nice as possible since it will cover the pie.
- Cut 5 of the 6 sheets of phyllo dough in to 4 pieces, making a circle which is 40-50 cm in diameter. The 6th sheet will be left whole.
- Brush a 30 cm round baking pan with olive oil.
- Lay the first 4 pieces of phyllo nicely on to the bottom of the pan.
- Drizzle with olive oil. Do not brush the phyllo so that they don’t stick to one another and air pockets can be created in between them. This makes the phyllo crunchier!
- You will need about 200 ml of olive oil for all of the phyllo.
- Repeat the same process for another 2 sheets of phyllo, to create the bottom crust.
- Make sure you lay the phyllo along the sides of the baking pan first and then fill in the gaps with more of the pieces of phyllo. This helps give more texture.
- Add the filling, spreading it evenly all over the phyllo base.
- Drizzle filling with some olive oil.
- Cover filling with another 2 sheets of phyllo dough, repeating the exact same process as before.
- Be as careful as you can with the 6th and final sheet of phyllo dough, which should be left whole.
- Gently lay it out over the pie, turn the edges over with your fingers and gently tuck them in all the way around.
- Score the surface with a sharp knife and drizzle with the remaining olive oil.
- Bake for 45-60 minutes, or until golden and crunchy.
- When ready, remove from oven and cut in to pieces.
- Drizzle each piece with a small amount of olive oil and serve.
Recipe credit: Chef Akis
https://akispetretzikis.com/en/categories/almyres-pites-tartes/spanakopita-me-feta
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