I absolutely love Greek food and was
influenced early on by working for a Greek restaurant in Chicagoland when I was a teenager. Also during this
time, my girlfriends and I drove downtown on special
occasions and had dinner at Diana's and other Greek restaurants. We danced in Greektown and tasted flaming cheese and ouzo! Opa!
Side note--following one of these great Greek dinners we decided to make saganaki (flaming cheese), but later realized we
were not old enough to buy the liquor to flame this delicious appetizer.
Spanikopita = soft little spinach & cheese pies.
Ingredients:
18 oz. box frozen chopped spinach, thawed16 oz. feta cheese
16 oz. fat-free cottage cheese
8 oz. low-fat cream cheese
10 green onions, chopped
4 eggs
1 tbsp dried dill weed
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 1/2 tsps Kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper
4 oz. butter, melted
Phyllo dough
Squeeze all
of the liquid out of the spinach, then combine all ingredients, except the phyllo and butter, in a large bowl and mix well. Grease two 12" x 17" cookie sheets with melted butter. Preheat oven to 350. Lay a sheet of phyllo down on a flat surface and brush it
lightly with the melted butter. Place two tablespoons of the
spinach mixture in the center of the filo sheet near the bottom.
Fold the
two sides inward over the mound and brush the seam with butter. Roll
forward to form a rectangle, roughly 2”x5” in size. Butter the
bottom where the seam is and place it on the baking sheet, seam side down, then lightly butter the top. The cookie sheets should hold about 10 spanikopita at one time. Once the sheets are full, place them in the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the top of the phyllo dough is golden brown.
Serve these warm, but they fabulous cold, too. I plan to serve these with tzatziki (see recipe on my blog) next time. Spanikopita freezes well.
Serve these warm, but they fabulous cold, too. I plan to serve these with tzatziki (see recipe on my blog) next time. Spanikopita freezes well.
