This is a recipe from my grandmother for the best spinach pie (spanakopita) for “lazy” people. Meaning that this pie doesn’t use phyllo unlike most (maybe all?) the greek pies. This pie also makes an excellent tapas dish for wine – so don’t be stingy when it comes to salt and pepper! It is supposed to be peppery!
Ingredients:
- 800 gr of spinach (either fresh or frozen)
- 1 leek, chopped
- few (about 3 to 5) scallions, chopped
- a handfull chopped dill
- 150 gr of all-purpose flour
- 100 ml olive oil
- salt (about 1.5 to 2 teaspoons)
- black pepper (about 1 teaspoon)
- ground cinnamon (about 1 teaspoon)
The first thing you have to do is to shred the spinach (if its fresh) and drain it from water. You don’t want the spinach to release any water in the mixture – thats very important. I don’t know why – my grandma and mom said so and i just follow orders.
I confess that i find it easier when i use frozen spinach. You just unfreeze, drain, ready. But hey, i do mine you do yours.
So, take a big bowl and through all ingredients in. Order doesn’t matter but you will find it easier if you put the vegetables first (spinach, leek, scallions, dill), add salt, pepper, cinnamon and then start adding bit by bit the flour and the olive oil as you mix the stuff in the bowl. I use my hand to mix it – do that, its easier and it gives you a good feeling about when to stop adding flour. Overall you want the mixture to be not too thick but to rather “flow”. – something like slime but not repulsive. That’s what my mixture looks like:
Then, preheat the oven to 180℃ fan only, and in the meantime, pour the mixture in a pyrex or non-sticky backing tray. If you don’t have that, go for the usual ritual of buttering the baking tray.
Once the oven is ready, push the tray in and give it around 30 minutes to bake. I will share a secret – the pie is supposed to be thin in terms of height, so go for a “bigger” tray in order to spread your mixture to a thin layer. And that’s why you only need 30 minutes for baking. The taller the layer, the more time to bake.
Let it rest before you give it a try. To be honest, its even better if you leave it in the fridge for a night. Kali orexi!