Today, as per my mother’s request, I made spanikopita. But I have to give you some background on my relationship with phyllo dough: it’s a hate relationship. The stuff just doesn’t like me, it’s delicate, difficult, sometimes too dry, sometimes too wet, sometimes too sticky. UGH, just PLEASE do not make me work with it! However, today I managed to figure it out, to an extent and I hope my relationship with this type of dough will grow because I do believe it’s a versatile pastry like dough that can make some beautiful things. Anyways, back to the spanikopita… This recipe had more spinach that I would have liked, and if I could do it again I would actually make the  spinach finer, add more feta, and made them in nests and swirls. I think this can be a great appetizer that goes a long way, especially with some tzaziki sauce.

Nonetheless the end product was worth it, because hey, I felt accomplished. But what was more awesome was spending time with my family, seeing my cousins, and all 3 of my paternal uncles was well worth all the hard work.

 

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Ingredients:

1 cup of chopped spring onions
1 1/2 cup of chopped spinach, washed and drained
2 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp of chopped dill or fennel
2 cups of crumbled feta
1 roll of phyllo dough
1/4 cup of olive oil and another 1/4 for assembly
1/4 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

  1. First, prepare all your ingredients that you need, it is fairly simple to make the filling and takes about 10 minutes to be completely honest. After chopping the spring onions, heat up a skillet to medium heat with olive oil. Fry the onions until they are soft.
  2. Pour them into a mixing bowl with the cheese, spinach, spices, and eggs. And mix!
  3. Pull out the phyllo dough and cut each sheet in half.
  4. Find the grain of the dough and use that to your advantage, if you lay the filling parallel to the grain of the dough, it will twist nicely.
  5. Roll and twist.
  6. Place on a well oiled baking sheet and bake at 375F for about 30-35 minutes.
Enjoy!
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