Best Spanikopita Recipes

SPANIKOPITA

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet. Mix the spinach, feta cheese, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, garlic, and salt in a bowl.
• Arrange one sheet of phyllo dough on a clean work surface and brush with melted butter. Cover the remaining phyllo dough with a damp towel. Place a second sheet of phyllo on top and brush with butter, then place a third sheet on top. Cut the buttered phyllo lengthwise into four strips.
• Place about 1 tablespoon of the spinach mixture on the bottom of each strip. Take the bottom right corner and fold the dough over the filling to make a triangle. Fold the bottom left corner up to make another triangle. Continue folding until all the dough is folded. Arrange the stuffed triangles, seam-side down, on the prepared baking sheet. Lightly brush the triangle with butter. Repeat with the remaining phyllo dough and spinach filling.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly before serving.

GREEK SPINACH PIE (SPANIKOPITA)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Drain spinach, using a paper towel squeeze all moisture out.
• Saute onion in a bit of olive oil until golden brown.
• Drain cottage cheese.
• Chop up or crumble cheeses.
• In a large bowl mix cheeses, spinach, onion, eggs and dill. Set aside.
• Remove half the phyllo from the package. Cover with damp cloth. Lay one sheet of dough in a 9X13 baking dish, brush with melted butter. Repeat until the half of the dough has been used. Pour on the spinach/cheese mixture and level with spatula. Top with remaining half of the phyllo dough, brushing each sheet with butter.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and 'puffy'.
• Cut and serve. This is for main course, you can also do in small triangles of dough for an appetizer, but that's too much work for me!
• This freezes very well.

SPANIKOPITA

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, add the spinach, scallions, parsley, and dill, and toss. Add the cheese and toss again. Add the eggs and then the cream of wheat. Work the eggs and cream of wheat into the mixture with your hands. After it is well incorporated, pour 1/2 cup olive oil over all and use a spoon to coat the mixture well. Season with salt and pepper.
• Brush a 9 by 13 inch baking pan with olive oil. Line the bottom of the pan with a leaf of phyllo. Brush with olive oil and repeat with another 4 leaves. Evenly spread the spinach mixture over the layered and oiled phyllo. Add 5 more leaves, brushing each with oil. With sharp knife, score top phyllo into serving size portions. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the phyllo is golden brown and the mixture inside is piping hot.

SPANIKOPITA ARANCINI

Steps:

• Bring stock, wine, lemon juice, salt and rice to a boil over med-high heat. Cook according to package directions, stirring frequently. For this recipe, you want the rice to be very tender, with no real "bite" to it, but not mushy either. To achieve this, you may need to add additional stock. When rice is tender, taste and add salt and pepper to taste--keep in mind you will add feta later which will add some saltiness. Remove from heat and stir in dill and zest.
• In a skillet over medium heat, saute sweet and green onions in oil until translucent. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir into rice along with spinach and feta (add as much or as little as you like). Taste and adjust seasoning. You may want to add more lemon juice, dill or salt and pepper. Allow to cool to roughly room temperature Add 2 beaten eggs and heavy cream. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Roll rice mixture into 1 inch balls. Dredge in flour, then in eggwash made from 1 egg and 2 T milk, then in breadcrumbs.
• Deep fry in hot oil until golden. Drain on paper towels and enjoy! Really good with tzatziki sauce.

SPANIKOPITA

Steps:

• Remove the green part of the green onions, and reserve.
• Using a good sized frying pan, in the olive oil, sweat (reminder not to use salt if later using myzithra cheese) the basil, oregano, garlic, and the chopped white part of the onions over medium low heat for a few minutes. If you are using dried parsley, add it to the sweat, otherwise do not add at this stage. (If you are substituting fresh herbs for dried, also do not add now.).
• When the onions are soft and starting to fall apart, add the spinach and any fresh herbs. Simmer for several minutes at the same heat. (The purpose of this is to add the flavor of the herbs and aromatics to the spinach.).
• Let that cool. This is very important. Commune with your family and/or friends, and forget about it for a while. Let the flavors meld, and accept that there's a reason for this. Preheating the oven to 375 depends on the oven, and how long the cooling process takes and how comfortable you are with your utility bills.
• Once the spinach mixture has reached at least a lukewarm temperature, in a mixing bowl, or if of limited means the same pan if it's large enough, add the feta, and get your hand(s) in there and start working the product. Depending on the liquid consistency, this is where this recipe becomes an art and a set of guidelines rather than a structured explanation. With your hand on the mixture, you're going to know whether it is feeling tacky or not. You want something like bread dough ready to bake, as far as tactile feel goes.
• You will need one egg for the inner part of the eventual product to "set" properly. Add that at this point in the process. That will give you a feel for how the rest of this will go. The reason you wanted it to cool was so that you could feel the temperature without burns, and to ensure that the egg did not cook in the spinach mixture.
• The strongly suggested myzithra should be added now. If that is not available, or outside of price range, then parmesan and romano should be added now. (It's a matter of preference, in the end, as the myzithra was the "WOW", but it's still an amazing dish without it.) What you want is at least a half cup combined. If the secondary cheeses (remember the feta was already added) do not drop the liquid consistency to "tacky", add more. If it is dry at this point, add another egg and add more cheese to get it to "tacky". What ingredients, dry or fresh, you used prior to this stage have an effect now.
• Once you reach that proper consistency, wash your hands, you don't need to touch it any more (potential cross contamination issues with the eggs), and oil a baking dish of similar proportions to the filo dough you purchased. I suggest butter, but do not use olive oil. Its smoking point is too low, and will often burn at 375°F.
• Lay out about half of the filo dough on the bottom of the oiled baking dish. Place the spinach mixture onto the lower layer of the filo dough. Make sure it reaches the edges. If there is some tearing, do not worry as long as the lower layers of the dough are still solid. This is normal, and will not comprise the final product. Lay the rest of the filo dough on top. Brush the top layer with the melted butter. This will assist in producing a crunchy top layer and help keep it from burning.
• Place in preheated 375F oven. Cook for 10-15 minutes, and check. Apply more butter if needed. Cook for a total of 20-25 minutes. You should be able to smell it and hear a solid almost frying sound when it is ready.

SPANIKOPITA

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 480 degrees F.
• Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add olive oil and heat. Add garlic, shallot and mushrooms and cook for 4 minutes. Add spinach and cook until spinach is very tender, roughly 6 minutes. Fold in the goat cheese, season with salt, to taste, and let cool. Lay out phyllo dough, butter liberally and fold into fourths. Butter again.
• Divide mushroom and spinach mix into 4 equal parts on the phyllo. Fold into triangles buttering between each fold. Bake for 8 minutes or until golden brown.