Lent Suppers - Spinach Pie

This spinach pie is a fun take on the Greek dish spanikopita. I LOVE spanikopita! The one down fall of the dish is that recipes often call for dill of which I am not a fan. This recipe from Ina Garten aka the Barefoot Contessa does not use dill so I was anxious to give it a try. 

First dice the onions and saute until translucent. I only had one onion so made do with that instead of the two that the recipe calls for. Set aside to cool.

Next thaw the spinach and squeeze out as much water as possible. If you have watery spinach you'll end up with a watery pie!

In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Then add in the onions, eggs, nutmeg, Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs and feta. I feel like nutmeg is a strong spice so I reduced the amount to 1 teaspoon and the hubby is allergic to pine nuts so I omitted those. Set mixture aside.

Butter a pie pan. Word of warning: when melting your butter in the microwave heat it in small increments and check it often. Otherwise it will explode and make a horrible mess or as Nate remarked, "butter went boom!"

Next, take out your phyllo dough (Before you decide to make this check the thawing instructions! Typically it takes a full day to thaw properly!). You will need six sheets. The rest can be re-packaged and re-frozen.

Butter each sheet and place it in the pie dish. The sheets will be larger than the dish and hang over the sides...this is a good thing!

When all of the sheets are buttered and in the dish, pour the spinach mixture into the pan.

Fold up the loose sides of the phyllo dough to cover the spinach mixture. Simply make your way around the dish as you would fold a crostata.

Butter the top of the phyllo dough. Place in the oven and bake.

The pie will puff up and become a gorgeous crisp golden pie! Slice and serve. Ina Garten says to serve at room temperature. We couldn't wait. We served it warm and it was great that way!

Verdict: 3 cheers! The prep was easy and the end result is pretty stunning! Changes I would make: stay with 1 onion, reduce the nutmeg to 1/2 t., add in a touch of cayanne maybe a 1/4 t., cube the feta larger my cubes were smaller than 1/2-inch as the recipe suggests.

Spinach Pie - Serves 6-8
Ingredients:

• 3 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)
• 2 tablespoons good olive oil
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 3 (10-ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
• 6 extra-large eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons grated nutmeg
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 tablespoons plain dry bread crumbs
• 1/2 pound good feta, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/2 cup pignoli (pine nuts)
• 1/4 pound salted butter, melted
• 6 sheets phyllo dough, defrosted

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium saute pan on medium heat, saute the onions with the olive oil until translucent and slightly browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the salt and pepper and allow to cool slightly.
Squeeze out and discard as much of the liquid from the spinach as possible. Put the spinach into a bowl and then gently mix in the onions, eggs, nutmeg, Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, feta, and pignoli.

Butter an ovenproof, nonstick, 8-inch saute pan and line it with 6 stacked sheets of phyllo dough, brushing each with melted butter and letting the edges hang over the pan. Pour the spinach mixture into the middle of the phyllo and neatly fold the edges up and over the top to seal in the filling. Brush the top well with melted butter. Bake for 1 hour, until the top is golden brown and the filling is set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Serve at room temperature.