Spanakopita

​Our Spanakopita is a savory spinach pie made with phyllo dough, spinach, and a blend of feta and ricotta cheese. It's a wonderful meatless dish for lent or anytime. This recipe makes a lot, but good news: it's great leftover!

---

Ingredients

Filling:

• 1 bag frozen chopped spinach (12-16 oz), thawed and drained
• 1 Tbs dried parsley
• 1 ½ Tbs dried minced onion
• 2 Tbs minced garlic (2 cloves) OR 1 tsp dried granulated garlic
• 4 large eggs
• 6-8 oz feta cheese, crumbled
• 16 oz ricotta cheese, broken up
• ½ tsp salt

Crust:

• 1 16-oz package of phyllo dough, thawed
• ¾ c butter, melted
• ½ c olive oil*
• Pastry brush

*if you start to run low on the butter/oil mixture while layering, add a little more olive oil as needed

Directions

• This takes a while to assemble, so you can start preheating your oven once you’re done assembling. If the phyllo is frozen, put in the fridge to thaw the day before
• Make sure that the spinach is very well-drained by squeezing out as much liquid as possible. Transfer spinach to a large bowl and break it up
• Add the remaining filling ingredients and mix well
• In a small bowl, mix the melted butter and olive oil
• Place a lightly damp cotton towel on the bottom of a large baking sheet, set the thawed phyllo sheets on the towel, then cover the sheets with another lightly damp cotton towel
• Prepare a 9x13 (or slightly larger) baking dish by brushing it with the butter/oil mixture
• Line the bottom of the pan with 2-3 sheets of phyllo dough, let them go up the sides of the pan, and brush with butter/oil
• Add 2 more sheets and brush with butter/oil. Repeat until about 2/3 of the sheets are used
• Spread the filling evenly over the phyllo dough
• Top with 2 more sheets of phyllo, brush with butter/oil, then fold in about half of the overhanging phyllo edges to seal in the filling
• Continue to layer 2 sheets and brush with butter/oil until you’ve used up all the phyllo
• Fold the remaining edges over the top and brush the whole top with the rest of the butter/oil mixture
• Carefully cut the spanakopita partway through, this will make your life easier! You can either cut it into equal squares or diamonds, just don’t cut the whole way through
• Preheat the oven to 325°F
• Bake for 1 hour or until the crust is crispy and golden
• Cool on a wire rack for about 15 minutes before cutting through
• Serve with a salad on the side. It’s also great leftover and reheats well in the oven or toaster oven

---