Spanakopita - Greek spinach pie

Get your phyllo ready, and let's make real spanakopita.

Published originally on my blog on 11 July 2012

There are certain movies that I have watched a million times yet I never get tired of them. I may know the storyline, heck I may even know all the lines verbatim, but I watch them repeatedly because they make me feel good. They allow me to escape from my everyday life, they lift me up when I'm feeling down, they make me cry—sometimes a girl needs a good cry, —and they bring back memories.

The same thing happens with certain foods or dishes. They are embedded in my DNA and I go back to them again and again, craving them, cooking them, devouring them. These are of course Greek dishes, dishes I've learned how to cook not through reading some recipe in a cookbook or in a blog but through watching my grandmother, my grandfather and my mom cook them; dishes I know inherently how to improve upon or slightly alter to suit tastes and preferences without losing any of their originality and authenticity; flavors I am so incredibly familiar with, it is difficult to remember a time when I was not savoring them.

Spanakopita is one of those dishes. Growing up, it wasn't my favorite pita (pie in Greek), I hated green foods like any other normal kid but as I grew up, it grew on me. My mom's spanakopita is the best in the world after all. Everyone says that about their mother's cooking but really, my mom's is the best. She never made her own phyllo pastry, she was/is a working mother with two kids that didn't have spare time for such endeavors, but in Greece the ready-made phyllo is among the best in the world.

I see so many recipes in cookbooks, magazines and blogs for spanakopita and with only a few exceptions, they disappoint me. They are nothing like a real spanakopita. Everyone adds their own twist and that is perfectly okay but if you want the real deal, here it is. This is how we Greeks eat it in Greece.

Spanakopita means spinach pie (spanaki=spinach, pita=pie) and the prominent flavor should be just that, the spinach, wild spinach in particular, but you can also use baby spinach, as I did this time. It must have feta cheese inside, but not a large amount, just enough to cut through the acidic flavor of the spinach; that's the reason leeks are added as well, to bring sweetness to the pie. Dill is essential with its herby, grassy quality and spring onions are a must to give it some mild heat. Good, extra virgin olive oil needs to drench the whole lot and when you mix everything together, you have your filling. As simple as that.

Get your phyllo ready, and let's eat some real spanakopita.

Spanakopita - Greek spinach pie

Working with phyllo is easy, as long as you follow some rules. You can read in this post how to handle ready-made phyllo as well as some useful tips.

I always eat my spanakopita with a good dollop of Greek strained yoghurt on the side. It's the perfect combination.

I usually have it as a main meal but it can be served as an appetizer, cut into small pieces.