Spanikopita
This is my sibling Viv’s fave. I cook it for Easter and Christmas as an awesome veggie main dish.
Ingredients
1 large bunch of silverbeet
250g feta
1/2 cup of finely grated parmesan
small tub or handful of fresh ricotta
4 free range eggs
nutmeg
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons of panko bread crumbs (alternatively just crumble up a piece of bread from your kitchen)
4 shallots/spring onions finely sliced
1 handful of dill finely chopped (if you’re not a massive fan of dill feel free to add less)
cracked pepper
375g fresh filo pastry
125g butter (alternatively you can use olive oil which I have done many times and it works just as well) melted
paprika for seasoning
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C
Trim off the roots of the silverbeet then finely slice the leaves and set aside. I usually do a quick steam of the silverbeet and then drain the leaves but this is totally up to you.
Place the feta in a large mixing bowl, breaking it apart with your hands so it resembles crumbs. Add the parmesan, ricotta, eggs, nutmeg, olive oil, shallots, bread crumbs and then season with pepper. Mix in the spinach on top with your hands until everything is well combined.
Lightly oil or spray a 20 x 30cm baking dish with a neutral oil. Now you start your layering with the filo pastry. Firstly lay down one piece of pastry and then brush it lightly (using a pastry brush), with butter. Then you repeat this process until about half of the pastry has been used.
Spoon the spinach and cheese mixture in to the baking dish in the pastry and smooth out so it evenly reaches the sides/corner. Then fold over the edges of the pastry and start to layer the remaining pastry on top using the same method with the butter being brushed between each layer. Make sure that your final piece of pastry is nicely buttered, that way it will come out a beautiful golden brown when it has finished in the oven. Pierce the top of the pastry with a sharp knife a few times so you can let the pie breathe in the oven. Then sprinkle with some paprika on top.
Bake in oven for 40-50 minutes until it is golden brown on top and the pie has risen a little at the top. If it starts to brown earlier than expected you can whack on some foil to protect the top so it doesn’t burn. Cool for about 10 minutes before eating. Kali Orexi!