Spanakopita

What you need:

Olive oil, to grease
1 x 500g pkt frozen spinach, thawed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 brown onion, halved, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
6 green shallots, ends trimmed, thinly sliced
250g fresh ricotta
200g feta, crumbled
4 eggs, lightly whisked
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh continental parsley
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh dill
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
16 sheets filo pastry
100g butter, melted

                What to do:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush a round 23cm (base measurement) fluted tart tin, with removable base, with olive oil to lightly grease.

Use your hands to squeeze the excess liquid from the spinach. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until onion softens. Add the shallots and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until soft. Remove from heat.

Combine the onion mixture, spinach, ricotta, feta, egg, parsley, dill and rind in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Trim filo sheets to a 30cm square. Place on a clean work surface. Cover with a clean tea towel, then a damp tea towel (this will prevent it drying out). Brush 1 filo sheet with melted butter. Top with another sheet, rotating it 90°, and brush with butter. Continue layering with 6 more filo sheets to make a stack of 8 sheets. Repeat with remaining filo and butter to form a second stack. Line tin with a filo stack, allowing the edges to overhang. Spoon in spinach mixture and smooth the surface. Top with remaining filo stack. Coarsely scrunch edges of pastry together to enclose the filling.

Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until pastry is golden and filling is set. Remove from oven and set aside for 15 minute cut into wedges. Serve with a nice simple salad.

NOTES: sometimes I find using filo pastry a nightmare and I end up throwing away more than I use, so to  the rescue good old Puff Pastry, it never fails and that is what I used in the pic below.

Spanakopita