Spinach & Cheese Pie 3Sep08

For dinner tonight I made a spinach and cheese pie. I actually have been wanting to make this since I had it for lunch at the David Jones foodhall a few days ago. This was nothing like the one I had for lunch… it was better! if I do say so myself

Ingredients:
8 sheets of filo dough (or phyllo dough)
10 oz  of spinach, washed and dried (or you can buy frozen!)
3/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup of feta – cut to tiny 1 cm cubes
1/2 cup of low-fat ricotta cheese
2 medium yellow onions – chopped
2 cloves of garlic – chopped fine
1/4 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
fresh ground pepper (you can add as much as you like)
1 tablespoon of butter
2 eggs
2 egg whites
canola spray

preheat oven to 350°F or 170°C

Step 1: The spinach
if you decide to use frozen, defrost the block of spinach in some warm water, strain, squeeze out all the water as much as you can, ring it out like a cloth. use a paper towel to soak up the rest. if you are going from fresh, chop the leaves up roughly. in a low heated saucepan, melt just a tiny bit of butter – just enough to coat the very bottom of the pan and put the leaves on. cook to just wilted and it turns bright green. remove from heat and let it cool. once it’s cool – strain, squeeze and ring to get all the excess water out.

Step 2: The onions & the mix
melt the tablespoon of butter in a saucepan and then throw in the onions and garlic. stir occasionally. remove from heat when the onions are translucent and set aside to cool. now, in a large mixing bowl, mix with a large spoon the following: ricotta, 2 whole eggs, 2 egg whites, parmesan, feta, salt, pepper, and cumin. when the onions have cooled, add that in. when the spinach is drained, throw that in as well. make sure to just mix enough to get everything together.

Step 3: The dough
get your canola spray ready! in a pie dish, spray a thin layer of oil on the naked pan. then place 1 sheet of filo dough on it – don’t worry about the edges we’ll worry about that later. spray another thin later of oil, and place another sheet of filo. do this for 8 sheets of filo dough total. the key is spraying the oil on EACH layer. now trim the edges of your dish with scissors and thats it!

Step 4: Bake Bake Bake
spoon in the cheese-spinach mixture into the filo crusted dish and spread evenly. bake for about 1 hour, until toasty golden brown and the mixture is set. let it cook for about 15-20 mins before cutting and serving. enjoy!!

Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, cheese, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, spinach, vegetables

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 at 11:46 pm and is filed under baking, food, mmmm, recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.