Phyllo pastry may be a bit daunting if you’ve never used it.
Use it once and you’ll realize how easy it is to make delightful flaky bites of all kinds.
This is one of my favorite. If you don’t have feta cheese use mozzarella.
You can replace the spinach with Swiss chard.
Spanakopita
2 pounds fresh spinach, washed and drained (or 600 g frozen spinach thawed, drained and squeezed)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound feta cheese, crumbled
1 to 2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup olive oil or melted butter
1 pound filo pastry sheets
Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté onion, until soft and lightly browned. Stir in spinach and parsley, and continue to sauté until spinach is limp, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
In a medium bowl, mix together eggs, and feta. Stir in spinach mixture.
Place one sheet of phyllo pastry on a work surface keeping the remaining sheets covered with plastic wrap or a damp cloth. Brush half a sheet lightly with oil (or butter). Fold and repeat. Brush the remaining quarter surface with oil. Place about 1/4 cup of filling onto the bottom corner of your strip. Fold one corner over the filling so bottom edge meets side edges to form a triangle. Fold up triangle until end of strip. Repeat with remaining phyllo and filling.
Place all triangles on a greased baking sheet. Brush a little oil on top of triangles. Bake on middle rack at 375ºF for 15 minutes or until spanakopitas are golden brown. Serve warm.
If you have left over chicken; chop and add to the spinach mix.
If you made too many; either freeze before baking or bake and freeze.
