Spanakopita Recipe
Farming is hungry work, of course, and although there isn't a massive amount of variety in the veggies available to us right now, we have been eating lots of great meals, as we hope you have been too! Our farm hand, Sophie, has been eating all things cabbage (roasted, mostly, often with a Miso butter dressing, or in a fresh cabbage, beet, and carrot salad). Our board member, Alex Lotero Vanderkam, has been using her CSA radishes in this tasty recipe. I have been making lots of Spanakopita (Spinach Pie), and wanted to share the recipe with you all. It is very simple and can be easily altered, if you want to add different cheese or greens in (chard is often a good addition!).
Spanakopita Recipe:
Take your frozen filo pastry roll out of the freezer to thaw while you cook your spinach filling.
Dice up an onion and a few cloves of garlic (I usually do 2 or 3), sauté for a few minutes until clear and soft, starting to brown.
Add in your whole CSA share of spinach (plus some extra spinach, chard, etc. if you have some) to the onion and garlic mix, until the spinach has all cooked down.
I like to add in some ground cumin and salt and pepper at this point, and then turn off the heat.
Let the mixture cool for a little, and then crumble up a block of feta into the spinach mix, in addition to two eggs.
Chop up a bunch of dill and a bunch of parsley and add into the mix.
Make sure to stir the dill, parsley, feta and eggs into the greens until everything is evenly distributed.
Set the oven to around 380-400 F, and start to assemble your filo pastry base layers.
Using olive oil, or a mixture of olive oil and melted butter, paint a thin layer of oil over the bottom of a baking dish (pastry brush would be easiest, I use a spoon). Then put one piece of filo pastry on top of this oil, brush another thin layer of oil over the filo pastry, and continue this layering until you have placed 4 to 6 layers of filo pastry down (these pieces should also come up the sides of the dish).
Distribute your spinach mix over the filo base, and then repeat layering of filo pastry and oil for around 4-6 more layers.
Place the baking dish in the oven, and cook for roughly 45 - 60 minutes, until the filo pastry is a deep golden brown. Let the Spanakopita cool for a bit, and then enjoy!
Happy eating,
Farmer Haidee :)