Description
Spanakopita Pie – an easy, healthy recipe for spanakopita, with double the spinach filling, made in a pie pan! A delicious Greek style lunch or brunch idea! This requires phyllo THAWING time (3 hours or overnight)! Adapted from Bon Appetit
Ingredients
Units
- 2–3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, rough chopped
- 2 lbs chopped baby spinach, fresh ( or use frozen)
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh dill
- 1/3 cup chopped Italian parsley (or basil)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (fresh grated nutmeg is nice here)
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup sheep’s milk feta cheese, crumbled (or sub goat cheese)
- 1 1/4 cups shredded gruyere cheese or mozzarella (or other mild melty cheese)
- —-
- 12 sheets phyllo dough – thawed overnight in the fridge or on the counter for 3 hours.
- 4–6 Tablespoons olive oil for brushing filo, or use spray olive oil ( the easiest, fastest!) or melted butter.
Instructions
- Make sure your phyllo dough is thawed (overnight in the fridge, or on the counter for 3 hours)
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Make the filling: In an extra-large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat, saute the onion 3-4 minutes, stirring until fragrant and golden, lower heat to medium and add garlic saute 2-3 minutes. If using fresh spinach (chopped), add in batches, wilting, adding more until all fits in the pan and is wilted. Or add frozen spinach and saute until warmed through. Toss in the herbs and mix well. Strain for a few minutes using a fine mesh strainer, and press down a bit to encourage more drainage. You want this pretty dry!
- Place in a large bowl. Using a fork, stir in the nutmeg, pepper, eggs, feta, and mozzarella. Stir the filling to combine.
- Layer the phyllo: Unwrap and unroll the thawed phyllo dough so it’s lying flat on the counter. Cover it with a dish towel to prevent it from drying out.
- Brush or spray 9 or 10-inch pie pan with oil, coating bottom and sides. Lay a piece of phyllo over the bottom, letting edges hang over. Brush or spray very lightly with olive oil, also getting the edges. Lay another piece of phyllo, crisscrossing, and lightly brush with oil. Layer another piece crossing at a diagonal to make a star, and brush lightly with oil. Then another piece at the other diagonal, continuing to layer and brush with oil so phyllo is sticking out from all edges. Layer 12 sheets.
- Fill the pie: Place the cooled spinach filling in the middle and spread it out. Gently gather the edges upwards, brushing (or spraying) any dry spots (on the outside edges) with a little oil, and bring them up over the filling, folding, gathering towards the middle. It will not look perfect. 🙂
- Bake 50-60 minutes– in the lower middle of your oven, checking at 25 minutes -and if necessary, rotate and lay a piece of foil gently over top (do try to attach it). Bake another 30 minutes letting those eggs cook through. You can also lower the oven to 325F if it looks like it is getting too dark.
- Let cool 15-20 minutes before cutting with a sharp knife.
Notes
You may be tempted to use all feta instead of mozzarella (like I did the first time). I found the filling way too sharp and tangy. This is because the filling is very thick here (double the thickness than normal spanakopita).
So I halved the feta and added gruyere which got beautifully melty and mellowed that sharp flavor. You could also sub some ricotta.
Leftovers will keep 3-4 days in the refrigerator- reheat in a 325F oven.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ⅛ of a pie ( using olive oil)
- Calories: 376
- Sugar: 3 g
- Sodium: 643.4 mg
- Fat: 25.8 g
- Saturated Fat: 8.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 24.6 g
- Fiber: 4 g
- Protein: 14.5 g
- Cholesterol: 77.2 mg
