Spanakopita - Greek Spinach and Cheese Pie

👨‍🍳 Method

For the Wrapping Dough

1. 1
   Thaw the phyllo dough in the fridge overnight, until pliable but still cold.

   Refrigerator

   💡Work with store-bought dough while it's cold: warm puff pastry gets sticky and won't puff in the oven, and phyllo sheets dry out fast, so keep the waiting sheets covered with a damp towel.

For the Pastry Filling

1. 2
   Heat the oil and fry the onion and garlic until translucent.

   ⚙ Pan-fryingStoveFrying pan
2. 3
   Add the spinach and fry, until the liquid evaporates. Let cool.

   ⚙ Adding to the hot fat and fryingStove

   💡Wet vegetables make the dough soggy from the inside: fry or squeeze the spinach until no liquid is left, and cool before mixing with the cheese.

   💡Add by cooking time: what needs long (onion, carrot, meat) goes in first, and what burns fast (garlic, dry spices) goes in last, only until fragrant.
3. 4
   Squeeze the liquid out of the spinach well.
4. 5
   In a bowl, mix the spinach, feta, eggs, nutmeg, dill and mint, and season with black pepper.

   Bowl

To assemble

1. 6
   Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F).

   ⚙ Preheating the OvenOven

   💡Put things in the oven only once it's reached temperature, after the heating light has gone off: an oven that hasn't reached temperature changes baking times, and the bake burns outside or stays underbaked.
2. 7
   Grease Pan and lay in it 5 phyllo sheets, spreading a little the oil on each sheet.

   Baking panPastry brush
3. 8
   Fill with the cooled filling and smooth the top.
4. 9
   Cover with 5 more phyllo sheets, brushing each one with a little the oil as well, and score the top layer into squares.

   Pastry brush

   💡Score the top phyllo layers before baking: after baking they are crisp and crumble under the knife.
5. 10
   Bake 35–40 minutes, until the pie is golden.

   ⚙ BakingOvenBaking pan

   💡Check by the cue (until…), not just the clock: every oven bakes a little differently.
6. 11
   Let rest 10 minutes and serve.