Spanakopita

When I studied in Italy my Sophomore year of college, they took our entire class on a trip to Greece for 10 days. While I have many memories of great food while I was there (and a not so great one of eating octopus!), one of the foods that stands out most in my mind was the first dish I ate there, spanakopita.

After getting off our overnight ferry from Italy, we were placed on charter buses to begin our three-hour drive to Olympia. A heavy rainstorm quickly descended and I fell asleep, to awaken several hours later when we pulled up to our hotel. Olympia was a very sleepy little Greek town, distinguished only by it's ruins - the site of the first Olympics. All of the inhabitants, however, were very excited to see us and very welcoming. After dropping off our bags in the hotel we sat down in the restaurant for lunch. I was starving.

Ancient Greek columns

I was pretty confused when they brought out the first dish. It looked something like a hot pocket but with much flakier dough. When I bit into it, a green, cheesy mixture was inside.

As I later learned, this was spanakopita: layers of phyllo dough filled with spinach and feta cheese. While I had amazing memories of this dish, it wasn't anything I had again in Greece, and I never saw it again once I came back to Texas.

Then one day I ran across a recipe for it on Pinterest. I'm going to refer you back there for the assembly pictures because they are so well done I couldn't hope to replicate them myself. Plus the girl is from a Greek family, so I'm pretty sure she knows what she is doing! Then later that week America's Test Kitchen sent out their email newsletter with a spanakopita recipe in it as well. I was pretty sure that was a sign.

After reading both recipes, I decided to combine the two and make a few changes of my own. The ingredients I got almost exactly from America's Test Kitchen but I did add parsley, and sub cottage cheese for the Greek yogurt like the other recipe had. And I followed Alexandra's instructions for assembling it. While I originally wanted to do the hot pocket shaped spanakopitas like I had eaten in Greece, making a large sheet 'cake' of it looked alot easier, so that is what I did.

I've now made this recipe three times, including for Easter, and it is definitely a keeper! I hope you enjoy it as much as my husband has ;)

Underneath that flaky crust of deliciousness is warm spinach and feta cheese!

Spanakopita: Greek Spinach and Feta Pie
Makes 1 9x14 pan

Ingredients

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Filling
16 oz tub of spinach leaves
¼ cup water
2-3 cups crumbled feta cheese
¾ cup cottage cheese
4 medium scallions, sliced thin (about 1/2 cup)
2 large eggs

1/4 cup diced fresh parsley1 TB dried mint
1 TB dill
1 TB garlic paste
1 TB lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Phyllo Layers
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
½ lb. (14 by 9-inch) phyllo, thawed overnight in the refrigerator

What to Do

Place all your spinach in a large, microwave safe bowl with the water. Microwave for five minutes, then let sit for a minute. Drain into a colander in the sink and press as much water out of the spinach as possible. Let it cool before chopping as it will be pretty hot.

While it is cooling, combine the rest of the filling ingredients in a bowl. Mix well.

Chop spinach, and then drain again. You can squeeze dry in a kitchen towel (make sure it is one you don't mind getting green!) or run through a salad spinner. Then add spinach to the cheese mixture.

Now it is time to start layering the phyllo dough. The best instructions for how to do this can really be found here.  Essentially, butter the bottom of a 14x9 baking dish and then start layering the phyllo, drizzling butter over the top of each layer and pressing out any large air bubbles as you go. Don't worry if it rips or tears, once you have all of the layers in place you won't notice! For the bottom section you want to layer 10 sheets of phyllo. 

Once you have layered 10 sheets, spread the spinach and cheese filling evenly through the pan. Then start layering phyllo again. This time you want 7-8 layers. When you are done, score the top couple layers of phyllo with a knife in a grid pattern. 

Bake in a 425 degree oven for about 25 minutes. The top should be golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes before serving. It can be served warm or cold, but in our house we prefer it warm. Enjoy!

Greek-style Stuffed Bell Peppers

We are a big fan of stuffed bell peppers over in our house. I've made Tex-mex stuffed peppers, Italian stuffed peppers, Philly cheese-steak stuffed peppers, and random leftover stuffed peppers. I found this recipe for Greek stuffed peppers early on in my Pinterest years, but it got buried at the bottom of my 100+ recipe dinner board. This weekend I finally pulled it out and dusted it off, and boy was it tasty.
The list of ingredients didn't seem like anything special to me, but I gave it a shot as written anyways. I did sub in ground lamb for ground beef since that's what I had in my freezer and it seemed more Greek that way. I was really amazed though at how well these simple ingredients came together to make an extraordinary dish.

Greek-Style Stuffed Bell Peppers
Serves 4-8 depending on how hungry they are

Ingredients
1 lb ground lamb
1 chopped onion
2 diced cloves of garlic
olive oil
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 TB dried oregano
1 8 oz can tomato sauce, divided
1/2 cup rice (I used arborio, but any short-grain rice should work)
2 potatoes4-5 bell peppers
feta

What to Do

Cook the diced onions and garlic in a skillet over medium heat with a few TB of olive oil, until onions are tender and translucent. Then add the meat and cook well. Season with fresh parsley, oregano, salt and pepper. Add half of the can of tomato sauce and the rice. Let simmer for a few minutes and then set aside (the rice will not be cooked yet). 

Preheat the oven to 375. While it is heating up, cut the tops off of the bell peppers and remove the seeds from the center. Stand them upright in an oven-safe dish (I used a 5 qt dutch oven). Fill the peppers with the meat and rice mixture and then set the tops of peppers back on. Pour the rest of the can of tomato sauce in the bottom of the pan, along with a can full of water and a little olive oil. 

Slice the potatoes into wedges and put them in the pan too, filling in the cracks around the peppers. Throw a little extra salt on them. 

Bake in the oven for at least an hour, until the rice is done. I cooked mine for 1 hr 15 minutes without a lid and the rice wasn't done yet, so I threw the lid on and let it cook for another 20 minutes. You might be able to get it cooked faster if you leave the lid on the whole time. 

Top the peppers with feta and enjoy! I only needed to eat half of one to feel full, but if you have hungry family members they could probably eat a whole one.