This is surely the ultimate Greek spinach pie, the pie that swells with egg and feta cheese enveloping the slippery soft spinach with mint and dill, in layers of crisp golden pastry. I don’t know why I don’t make it more often, it never fails and always seems such a treat. The top is etched with a diamond lattice denoting portion control but it never works because the pie is so good everyone wants more. I like it with a grilled cherry tomato salad with slivers of garlic and pitted black olives.
Serves 4
Prep: 35 min
Cook: 40 min
bunch spring/salad onions
2 tbsp olive oil
220g baby spinach
generous handful mint leaves
bunch dill
3 eggs
50g freshly grated Parmesan
100g feta cheese
75g melted butter or mixture butter and olive oil
270g filo pastry sheets
Finely slice the spring onions. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion for a few minutes until soft. Add half the spinach, turning with tongs as it begins to wilt, adding more, until all the spinach is in the pan and it’s all wilted. Coarsely chop the mint and dill and fold into the spinach. Tip onto a chopping board and use a mezzaluna or long knife to coarsely chop. Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl, crumble the feta over the top and grate the Parmesan directly into the bowl. Stir in the spinach. Heat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Brush an approximately 23 x 30 x 5cm oven dish with melted butter. Use half the filo to make layers in the dish, spreading each layer with melted butter and leaving an overhang. Tip the filling into the pastry case and smooth the top. Tuck the overhang in towards the middle and continue making buttered layers of filo and finish with a good smear of butter/oil. Use a sharp knife to cut portion-sized squares or diamonds, going through a couple of layers of filo. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the filling set, the pie puffed and swollen. Serve hot, warm or cold; leftovers can be resuscitated, the pastry crisped again, in a hot oven for a few minutes.