Everyone who has been to Greece will probably agree with my characteristics. local cuisine: it is very tasty and bright, but the names of dishes are often impossible to even pronounce correctly, let alone remember.

I confess that I also have difficulties with these names, but I still managed to remember a few, I even wrote down something in order to find the recipe at home and try to repeat it. And first of all, this refers to a very tasty pie called Spanakopita. I don’t know how it is translated, probably something banal, like “spinach pie”, but, in my opinion, it would be more correct to say “narcotic-tasty pastry, on which one becomes addicted”. Crispy crust, cheese, spinach - a magical combination.

There are a lot of variations of this cake, different shapes are possible, from portioned triangles to large ones, for the whole baking sheet. The dough and filling are also arranged in different ways: in layers, like lasagna, like ordinary pies with stuffing inside, or as (my favorite option) a twisted snail. There are even more filling options, spinach and cheese are always present, but they are taken in different proportions and supplemented with a variety of ingredients.

I tried many recipes and in the end I chose the most ideal option for myself, I hope you will like it too.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 package filo dough (8-9 sheets)
• 1 large package of spinach leaves (if frozen, then 200g)
• feta or cheese, 300g
• fresh slightly salted cheese, 200g
• butter, 40g
• olive oil, 1 tbsp
• Greek yogurt, 2 tbsp
• ground pepper
• a few sprigs of mint
• sesame seeds for decoration

Notes .

In this recipe, it is not necessary to be precise and use all the ingredients. The key ingredients are filo dough, spinach and cheese. Mint, olive oil, Greek yogurt are all flavor-enhancing additives, but if they're not on hand, it's okay. Yogurt can be replaced with low-fat sour cream, dried herbs can be added instead of mint, etc.

With cheeses, it is also not necessary to use such proportions, the main thing is that the total amount of cheeses is 500g and it is advisable to take 2 different ones. One of them should be crumbly and salty, in the original it is, of course, Greek feta, but you can use cheese or something similar instead. The second cheese is needed young, milky and slightly salty, in Greece there are a lot of such cheeses, each island makes its own varieties, but nothing is delivered to us, and the most suitable option that I found is kachoricotta. Alternatively, you can use lightly salted Adyghe cheeses.

Phyllo dough is not so difficult to buy now, I often come across it in large supermarkets. If you can’t find it at all, then you can replace it with thinly rolled puff pastry, it will not be quite a spanakopita, but it will still turn out delicious.

Cooking:

Cook spinach over low heat until reduced in volume. If you use frozen, then you need to evaporate the excess liquid. If the leaves were large, then you can tear them with your hands before stewing or only then lightly chop them with a blender.

Crumble the cheeses with your fingers or grind in a blender (not too much). Add finely chopped mint, yogurt, olive oil, pepper and spinach to them. I didn’t specify salt in the recipe, feta / cheese usually contains quite a lot of it anyway, you don’t need to add additional salt.

Filo are thin sheets unleavened dough, rectangular or square. It is not difficult to work with it, but there are some nuances: you need to carefully take out and carry out some actions with these sheets, they are easily torn. And the dough, which is not yet used, must be covered with a towel so that it does not dry out.

Lightly brush each sheet with melted butter, then spread the filling along one of the edges and roll it up like a roll. It is not necessary to wrap it very tightly, there should be a little air between the layers of dough, so that later airy crispy layers are obtained.

Cover the baking sheet with parchment, roll the prepared tubes in the shape of a snail, it is not necessary to lay it very tightly, leave a little air between the "rings". Lubricate the future cake with butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Filo pastry does not rise and spread much, so you can cook it without special forms.

Cook in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

This pie is delicious both hot and cold. It can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days, but this is unlikely :).

Do you like the combination of cheese and spinach? What is your favorite dish from Greek cuisine?

Have some spinach and want to cook something simple and tasty with it? If yes, then you've come to the right place! I recommend cooking and trying a crispy outside and juicy inside spinach pie.

Here are some simple step by step recipes with different fillings and therefore tastes. They are united only by spinach and puff pastry.

• Spinach is suitable both fresh (raw) and frozen.
• The recipes use ready-made (purchased) puff pastry. It doesn’t really matter whether it is yeast or without yeast, in the first case the cake will just be a little more magnificent.
• I also advise you to go to the page with recipes. Delicious!

Recipes

Puff pastry pie with spinach and cheese

Thin layered cake with juicy and fragrant filling spinach and cheese. Easy to prepare and eat!

Ingredients:

• Puff pastry - 450-500 g.
• Cheese (any) - 230 g.
• Chicken eggs - 4 pcs.
• Vegetable oil - for frying;
• Spinach (fresh or frozen) - about 220g
• Salt - 2 pinches;
• Onion - 1 pc.

How to cook

1. First you need to defrost the dough, if it is already soft, then fine - proceed to the next step.
2. Peel the onion, finely chop and fry in vegetable oil until half ready. Add chopped spinach and fry for another 5-8 minutes.
3. If you took soft cheese (feta, cheese, ricotta), then mash it with a fork until it looks like cottage cheese. If the cheese is semi-hard, then just grate it.
4. Put the spinach and onion into a cup with cheese, beat in 3 eggs, salt and mix well. You should get a juicy porridge-like mass.
5. Roll out the dough thinly with a rolling pin and divide into 2 rectangles.
6. Grease a baking sheet and lay the first sheet of dough, slightly lifting the edges to form sides.
7. Spread the spinach filling in an even layer over the dough.
8. Cover with a second sheet of dough and pinch around the edges.
9. Separate the yolk from the remaining egg, then beat it and spread it on the pie.
10. Heat the oven to 190 degrees, bake for about 25-30 minutes. Until blush.

Puff pastry pie with spinach and cottage cheese

open pie with spinach, cottage cheese and cheese. If desired, it can be made and millet closed, as in the recipe above.

Ingredients:

• Puff pastry - 250-300 g.
• Cottage cheese - 300 g.
• Spinach - 200 g.
• Fresh herbs: dill, onion, parsley - 1 small bunch;
• Eggs - 3 pcs.
• Semi-hard cheese - 100 g.
• Salt - 0.5 tsp;
• Sunflower oil;
• Black ground pepper - 2-3 pinches;

Cooking

1. Defrost the dough.
2. Finely chop the spinach and the rest of the greens, transfer to a pan, add 3-5 tbsp. tablespoons mass and fry over medium heat until soft (10-15 minutes).
3. Mash the cottage cheese with a fork, add salt and pepper. Crack in the eggs and add the spinach.
4. Mix well, and grate the cheese separately on a coarse grater.
5. Roll out the puff pastry, and then put it in a greased form with sides.
6. Lay out on top curd mass and then cover with a layer of cheese.
7. Heat the oven to 180 degrees, baking time - 30 minutes.

Puff pastry pie with spinach and egg

Puff with boiled eggs and cheese. This cake will be a good addition to tea, soup, or just as a full meal.

Ingredients:

• Puff pastry - 450 g.
• Spinach - 100 g.
• Boiled eggs - 3 pcs.
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Cheese - 100 g.

Cooking

1. If the dough and spinach are frozen, then they must first be thawed at room temperature.
2. Grease a baking dish with any oil.
3. Now you need to decide with the type of cake - do it open or closed.
4. If open, then simply roll out the dough and lay in a mold.
5. If the cake is closed, you need to roll out and divide into two layers. The first is down, and the second is to cover the filling.
6. Peel and finely chop the boiled eggs, mix with chopped spinach, salt and pepper.
7. Lay the filling, add grated cheese on top.
8. It remains to send the cake to a preheated oven (180 degrees) for 35 minutes.

Greek spinach pie

This pie somewhat duplicates the first recipe, but it still has its own characteristics. It is called "Greek" or "spanakopita".

And the peculiarities are that soft cheeses are used (feta, cheese, ricotta, etc.) and phyllo dough (some people call it phyllo).

Phyllo dough (phyllo) is very thin stretch dough. It looks like sheets of paper.

If you can’t find something similar in a store, then buy regular puff pastry, and then roll it out thinly.

Ingredients:

• Fresh spinach - 100 g.
• Fresh dill - 20 g.
• Feta cheese - 200 g.
• Green onions - 40 g.
• Chicken eggs - 3 pcs.
• Salt - a pinch;
• Black pepper - a pinch;
• Vegetable oil - 50 ml.
• Phyllo dough - 1 pack (10-12 sheets in it);

Cooking

Pour boiling water over spinach and cook until softened.

Then drain the water, and finely chop the spinach and other greens. Mash the cheese into a pulp, add salt and pepper, and then mix with raw eggs and greenery.

Lubricate the baking dish with oil and turn on the oven so that it warms up to 180 degrees.

Now you need to lay out 6 sheets of dough on a baking sheet, brushing each on top with oil.

Spread the spinach filling in an even layer.

And similarly lay on top another 5-6 sheets of dough, not forgetting to coat with oil between them.

We pinch the edges, smear the remaining oil on top and put in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

The cake will turn out golden in color with many layers soaked in fragrant oil.

Puff pastry "snail" with spinach

This cake looks like a snail shell, as it is prepared using a special technology. Inside are the same spinach, cheese and eggs. The site site will help you cook a delicious puff snail with herbs!

Ingredients:

• Puff pastry (thawed) - 450 g.
• Spinach - 350 g.
• Boiled eggs - 2-3 pcs.
• Green onions, dill and other herbs - 1 small bunch;
• Cream cheese - 3-4 tbsp. spoons;
• Grated cheese - 2-3 tbsp. a spoon;
• Salt, pepper - 1 pinch each;

Let's cook

1. Rinse all greens and finely chop. Also crumble boiled eggs.
2. Mix spinach and other greens with cheese, seasonings and eggs into a homogeneous tasty mass. The filling is ready!
3. Roll out the dough into a wide thin layer. Then it must be cut into long strips with a width of 7-10 cm.
4. Along each strip of dough, you need to lay out the filling, and then fasten the edges at all to make long sausages.
5. Grease a baking sheet with oil.
6. These "sausages" just need to be laid out in the form of a spiral, a snail. First they rolled one, then another around it, and so on.
7. Now you need to coat the cake on top with butter. If desired, you can sprinkle sesame seeds, some greens and other spices on top.
8. We close in the oven at a temperature of 180 degrees for 35 minutes.

To prepare puff pastry, you need ready yeast-free dough(store or own cooking). It needs to be rolled out as thin as possible so that it is almost not felt and crunchy when biting. For the filling, you can use frozen or fresh spinach. And if you add green onion, dill and parsley, then the filling will be fragrant in spring.

Advice! The cake is delicious, while hot, just out of the oven. As the puffs cool, they will not be as crispy, so carefully calculate the number of servings to make a one-time appetizer.

Total cooking time: 2 hours | Cooking time: 25 minutes
Yield: 12-14 pieces | Calories: 232.23

Ingredients

• frozen spinach - 250 g
• puff pastry without yeast - 250 g
• feta cheese - 200 g
• chicken eggs - 2 pcs.
• onion- 1 PC. (100 g)
• parsley, dill, green onion - to taste
• salt - 1-2 chips.
• vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l.
• sour cream for lubrication - 1 tbsp. l.

Cooking

Defrost puff pastry and spinach completely.



Finely chop the onion, fry in vegetable oil until golden brown. While the onion is fried, finely chop the greens (parsley, dill, green onion feathers).



In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a fork. Then add feta to them - carefully mash with a fork, mix with eggs until smooth.



Add finely chopped spinach to the filling (squeeze well so that there is no excess moisture), fried onions, herbs, salt to taste. Mix everything well.



Roll out the dough as thin as possible, then cut into 12 cm squares.



Put a portion of the filling on each piece. Form triangles. Tighten the edges tightly (I did a tuck, tuck and tuck again).



Transfer the triangles to a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Top with a little sour cream to brown the baked goods in the oven.



Bake at 180-190 degrees (the oven must be preheated in advance) for about 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.



Serve immediately, piping hot while crispy and warm. In addition, you can serve tzatziki (tsatsaki) sauce. Bon Appetit!

I have to admit, I have a certain soft spot for Greece. It is difficult to say why, perhaps a warm climate (I noticed such a weakness for other warm countries, more eastern though), perhaps a bright, emotional flavor of this country. In general, there is something attractive in this ancient culture, and of course the ancient Greek outfits, sandals and hairstyles. Where can we get away from philosophers and mathematicians. All this has a lasting impact on our modern life, and envelops Greece with some kind of romance. What can we say about Greek cuisine. Despite the fact that in Greek cuisine there are many similarities with other cuisines of the south, such as French, Italian, Balkan and Middle Eastern cuisine, and there are many differences.
The most characteristic and ancient element of the Greek diet is olive oil, which is present in almost all dishes.
Greek cuisine uses herbs and spices much more than other Mediterranean cuisines. Wild herbs, known for their smell and taste, as well as their medicinal properties, are also widely popular among the Greeks.
Other most popular ingredients for dishes are olives grown in Messinia, feta cheese, grape leaves, zucchini and yogurt. Desserts are dominated by honey and nuts.

Before proceeding directly to cooking, I want to say a few more words and the ingredients of what we will cook, as a result we will get such an informative article - a recipe. So to speak, food for the body and mind.))

spinach, - an annual herbaceous plant from the amaranth family, bred in gardens as a vegetable. Probably originally from Persia.
Spinach contains iron, calcium, magnesium, vitamins A, C and E, antioxidants and folic acid. Spinach has been around since the 6th century and is used in almost every cuisine in the world. And no wonder - it is useful, combined with different products and easy to grow. It is believed that the birthplace of spinach is Persia. It was sold even in the Middle Ages - in fresh, or boiled and compressed into balls. In the 16th century, several varieties of spinach were already grown, cooked with sugar and used as a laxative.
Winter spinach leaves are larger, dark green compared to summer varieties of lighter shades. Young spinach can be eaten raw in salads and sauces, while older, coarser leaves can be steamed, sautéed, and stewed.

Filo dough, Fyllo, Yufka (Turkish), Greek φύλλο, - unleavened dough of flour, water and salt, very thinly rolled or stretched. It is used for strudels, baklava, bannitas.
The Greek word Phyllon means "leaf". Layers of dough can be as thin as paper or a few millimeters thick. Phyllo dough is widely used in Greek and Turkish cuisines in both sweet and savory dishes. In Turkish cuisine, pastries made from this dough are called borek or boregi, in Albanian cuisine - byrek, and in Austrian-German-Hungarian cuisine, the dough is called blatterteig (strudel is baked from it). Paper-thin filo sheets contain less fat than all other types of dough. When cooking, each layer is smeared with melted butter or olive oil to achieve a crunchy result.

And so, the pie itself. (Finally).
Phyllo dough is sold in stores, but it is not so easy to find. If you still managed to do it, congratulations! If not, get dressed to tinker. I will describe one of the recipes (there are many) that I used. It is the most popular, but in terms of the quality of the test and the convenience of working with it, I cannot yet compare it with others, unfortunately I did not have time.

For the dough you need:
- 2.5 cups of premium flour;
- 1 glass of water;
- 4 tablespoons of olive oil;
- A pinch of salt.

Mix everything, replace the dough, wrap in cling film, put in the refrigerator.
According to the time the test is in the refrigerator, many sources disagree, someone writes that one hour is enough, someone that at least 8 hours. I did this and that and did not really feel the difference, maybe in another recipe it will be more pronounced. In general, in order not to rack your brains, better dough make in the evening and put it in the fridge overnight.

And here the fun begins! The dough must be taken out at least an hour, and preferably two hours before cooking, so that it becomes at room temperature. If it is cold, it will not be elastic. The second rule, this dough cannot be left in the air, it dries instantly, and the third, layers of stretched dough cannot be stacked on top of each other for storage, even sprinkled with starch or flour, they will still stick together and all the work will go down the drain.

Now that all precautions have been taken, you can roll out the dough.
We divide it into several parts. Then we roll it out a little with a rolling pin (it doesn’t roll out much, because it turns out like rubber, but we still do it so that we get a uniform cake), then we put a towel on the table and on the towel we begin to stretch the adze with our hands. We start from the middle, when it is thin in the middle, put it on a towel and stretch it along the edges. Keep stirring until the dough is completely translucent! I do this, I put my hand with my wrist up, I lower my fingers a little down, it turns out a half-open fist, I put (hang) the dough on top and stretch it with my other hand. Maybe someone else is more comfortable.

This is how this magic dough is actually made.
Of course, the biggest difficulty is stretching it, but if you motivate yourself delicious pie, it's not that hard.

Let's finally get to the cake.

For the pie:
- 300 grams of fresh spinach;
- Butter 2 tbsp. l. for frying the filling and you still need melted butter to lubricate the layers of dough, I needed a little less than half a pack, it all depends on your economy.)
- 1 large onion finely chopped;
- 350 grams of feta cheese;
- 1 bunch of green onions finely chopped;
- A bunch of parsley and a bunch of finely chopped dill;
- ¼ teaspoon of grated nutmeg;
- 50 grams of toasted pine nuts (I did not find them at home, so I did without them).
- Phyllo dough. The amount depends on the form in which you bake and the thickness of which you stretch it, I needed all the dough from the previous recipe (it's about 800 grams, although in basic recipe it is listed as half as much, but the shape is smaller there, in general, see for yourself).

Wash spinach. Put in large saucepan, DO NOT FILL WITH WATER (!), The water that remains on the leaves is enough. Cover and cook over low heat for 2-3 minutes until spinach wilts. Squeeze a little, cut. Heat 2 tbsp. oil in a frying pan, add onion and fry for 5 minutes until soft, then add spinach, feta, onion, herbs and nutmeg. Season and set aside.

Melt the butter, grease the mold with it.
For lubrication, I use a brush with natural bristles bought at a hardware store.
Cover the rest of the oil with a film so that it does not dry out.
Cover the bottom and sides with sheets of adze filo overlapping each other, brush with oil and cover again, and grease again. And so we put 4-5 layers (about half the dough).

Then spread the filling on top of the layers of dough. Lay layers of dough-butter on top until the adze runs out.

Next, some offer to cut the pie, because ready dough phyllo is quite difficult to cut. But I do not recommend doing this, because the precious juice is lost, it is better to suffer later and get an excellent taste.

if you have pine nuts, it's time to sprinkle them on the cake. And we send it to the oven preheated to 180 degrees. The cake takes approximately 45 minutes to bake. But everyone has different ovens, so you need to look at baking the crust. It should be golden in color.

That's all! The pie is ready. It can be eaten both cold and hot, it is amazing either way.