Recipe for "spanakopita-2"

NAME

     SPANAKOPITA-2 - Greek spinach and feta cheese pie
     This recipe is from a greek cookbook, with my  modifications
     and  the  addition  of  my mother's secret ingredient-leeks.
     ``fillo'' or ``fyllo'' is the greek word for ``leaf''.

INGREDIENTS (about 20 pieces)

     500 g     fillo dough
     120 ml    olive oil
     1.5 kg    spinach (5 packages, if you use frozen spinach)
     100 g     unsalted butter
     1         medium onion, chopped.
     3         leeks, washed and chopped.
     500 g     feta cheese
     5         eggs
     100 g     breadcrumbs
     250 ml    milk
     5 ml      salt
               pepper

PROCEDURE

          (1)  If you are using fresh spinach, wash  it,  dip  it
               for a minute or two in boiling water to blanch it,
               and then chop it. Drain the  spinach  and  squeeze
               most of the water out of it.
          (2)  Wash thoroughly and chop the  white  part  of  the
               leeks.  Peel and chop the onion. Saut' the chopped
               leeks and onion in the butter.
          (3)  Add the spinach, salt and pepper.  Mix  everything
               together and simmer for 20 minutes.
          (4)  While the  spinach  is  cooking,  grate  the  feta
               cheese  (I  use a food processor).  Alternatively,
               you can crumble it into small chunks.
          (5)  Remove the spinach from heat and add  the  cheese,
               eggs  (beaten),  breadcrumbs  and milk. Mix every-
               thing together and set aside.
          (6)  Grease a square baking pan  with  a  little  olive
               oil.  Take  one sheet of dough and place it on the
               bottom of the pan towards one of the  corners,  in
               such a way that the dough sticks out a little from
               two of the sides of the pan.  Brush the sheet with
               olive  oil.  Repeat  this step until you have used
               about two thirds of the dough, alternating corners
               and always brushing each sheet of dough with olive
               oil.
          (7)  Pour the spinach mixture into the pan.  Level  it,
               and  fold  in  the  sides  of the assembled crust.
               Brush the dough with olive oil.
          (8)  Take one sheet of dough and place it on top of the
               pie, this time without any bias towards any of the
               corners. Brush the sheet with  olive  oil.  Repeat
               this  step  until  you have used all the remaining
               dough, always brushing each sheet with olive oil.
          (9)  Gently tuck the edges of the top sheets  of  dough
               under  the  sides  of the pie.  Brush the top with
               olive oil. Using a sharp knife cut the top of  the
               pie  as  if  you  were cutting it to serve it, but
               don't go all the way to the bottom.  Sprinkle  the
               pie with
               of water and bake it at 175 deg. C for 45 minutes.
          (10) Let the pie cool, and serve.

NOTES

     I find  that  frozen  spinach  works  wonderfully  for  this
     recipe. Also, it's cheaper and somewhat easier to prepare.
     Unless you work quickly when assembling  the  dough  layers,
     the  unused  pieces  of dough will dry out. Until you become
     nimble with this process, you can  cover  the  unused  dough
     pieces with a damp dishcloth to prevent them from drying out
     while you fumble with the construction of the pie.
     The pie keeps well out of the refrigerator for  a  few  days
     and  can (indeed, some claim must) be eaten at room tempera-
     ture.
     Because of the way the pie is constructed, pieces  cut  from
     the  corners  and sides of the pan are particularly crunchy,
     and a lot of people consider them the best part of the  pie.
     This  suits  me  just fine, because I like the middle pieces
     which have more filling!
     The original recipe called for twice  the  amount  of  olive
     oil, but I find that I don't need that much.

RATING

     Difficulty: moderate.  Time: 1 hour preparation, 45  minutes
     baking.  Precision: approximate measurement OK.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Kriton Kyrimis
     Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
     kyrimis@princeton.edu    allegra!princeton!kyrimis