pastry

Some days you just need to put your apron on and unleash your inner domestic Goddess! Today it’s the Greek domestic Goddess showing her face – she of the fetta, olive oil and plenty of wine! Even better that these ingredients come deliciously baked into a ‘sunflower’ of a spanakopitta, fetta and spinach pie.

My cousin in Cyprus first posted this recipe…well, actually, her brother in America was the one that showed us, but that’s another story.

I loved the idea of being able to just grab a ‘petal’ off to eat. No need for plates or forks, just grab and dive in!

You can find the recipe here. But I’m going to show you, step-by-step, my version…..

First of all we need 500g of plain flour.

I used a mixture of plain, white flour and wholegrain spelt flour, to which we add 200ml of warm white wine and 90ml of olive oil. Also 1tsp of salt.

Mix until you have a soft, pliable dough….I added a few tbsp water too, to get it to a nice consistency, but that could have been because of the wholegrain flour needing more liquid.

Cover with plastic wrap, or a damp tea-towel, while you get on with making the filling……

First of all, whizz up a slice of bread (I used wholemeal) into crumbs, you’ll see why in a minute…

The original recipe appears to use ready made toasted breadcrumbs, which I don’t generally keep at home, but if you do you’ll need a few tablespoons full.

Microwave 300g spinach in a bowl, with a few splashes of water, to moisten the spinach slightly, mine took 5 minutes..

Add 200g Ricotta, 1 egg, 100g Fetta (crumbled) and most of the breadcrumbs to the squeezed out spinach (You need to remove the water from the spinach so that it’s not watery) salt and pepper

(only add salt if ricotta is the only cheese you are using as fetta is very salty already and really doesn’t need it)

Mix well….

Halve the dough into two, roll out one half into a 30cm circle, place onto a baking pan, which has been lined with greaseproof paper, top with the remainder of the breadcrumbs, then place the filling thus: one outer circle and one inner ‘dollop’ (a very technical term!)

Moisten the edge of the dough circle with water.

Next, roll out the other half of the dough, place on top and using your fingers pinch together the edges.

Place a mug over the pile of fetta filling which is in the middle of the pie to provide a template to fork round….you can see what I mean in the photograph….

Next, cut from the middle circle outward, I made 12 portions, but I think it would have looked nicer and more delicate, cut into 16, or even 20.

Then, carefully twist each piece 90 degrees, so that the fetta filling is exposed:

Brush with a little milk (or 1 beaten egg mixed with 1-2 tbsp water if you like a shinier finish) and bake at 180 deg. C for approximately 50-60 minutes.

check in between two of the ‘petals’ where they touch to see if the pastry is cooked.