Print

Easy Spanakopita

No reviews

Ingredients

Scale
  • 10 ounces frozen spinach, defrosted, or a little less than 1 pound fresh baby spinach, chopped.
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ pound feta, crumbled
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • pinch of cayenne pepper
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 10 sheets of fillo dough, thawed if frozen
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
    Special materials: Kitchen shears, parchment paper, brush for buttering phillo sheets, damp cloth.

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  2. Saute onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat, until soft and golden (about 8 minutes).
    If using fresh spinach:
  3. Add the chopped fresh spinach to the saute pan, one handful at a time, and cook until it is all wilted.
    If using frozen spinach:
  4. In a colander, wring out the well defrosted spinach so that is is quite dry. You don’t want the spinach to add much extra moisture that would make the pie soggy. Use kitchen shears to chop up the spinach.
  5. Combine spinach and feta. Add herbs, egg, spices and onion and garlic. Set aside.
  6. Now, stage your kitchen so you’re 100% ready to start working with the fillo dough. Have a clean damp cloth ready, and have the butter already melted and your buttering brush at hand.
  7. Unwrap the dough, lay it flat, and immediately cover it with the damp cloth. Tear a sheet of parchment paper that is slightly longer than the phillo sheets.
  8. Transfer your first phillo sheet to the parchment paper and brush it generously with butter. Spread the next sheet on top and brush this sheet with butter, too. Repeat.
  9. Place the spinach mixture in the center of the phillo dough and press it down so that you have a flat circle of spinach in the center atop the phillo dough.
  10. Grab your next sheet of phillo and lay it on top of the spinach. Butter it. Repeat twice.
  11. Roll the edges of the phillo dough in toward the spinach, so that there is a thick edge of folded phillo surrounding the spinach.
  12. Lay another sheet of phillo on top of this and butter it. Now crumple this sheet and arrange it on top of your spanakopita. Repeat with three more sheets (I arranged phillo sheets in concentric circles, but you can really do whatever you’d like at this stage).
  13. Transfer spanakopita, on the parchment paper, to a baking sheet. Bake 40 minutes until golden.