Recipe for "spanakopita"

NAME

     SPANAKOPITA - Greek spinach and cheese pie
     This recipe is from the Vegetarian Epicure by  Anna  Thomas.
     It takes lots of time to make, but is well worth it.

INGREDIENTS (serves 8)

     1 kg      fresh spinach
     500 g     filo dough
     250 g     feta cheese
     7         eggs
     1         onion, diced

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Dice the onion and saute it until golden brown.
          (2)  While the onion is cooking, wash the spinach.  Put
               it  in  a  bowl and rub lots of salt into it.  Let
               the spinach/salt sit  for  15  minutes.   This  is
               meant  to reduce the volume of spinach.  An alter-
               native to this is to barely steam the spinach (30-
               60 seconds).
          (3)  Beat the eggs.  Crumble the feta cheese and add to
               the  eggs.  Note that feta cheese is fairly salty.
               You can replace half or all  of  it  with  ricotta
               cheese.
          (4)  Rinse all the salt out of the spinach.  Add it and
               the  onions  to the eggs/cheese and mix.  Also add
               some spices. The original recipes calls for  salt,
               pepper, and oregano.  I use basil.
          (5)  Melt some butter (at least 60 g.)
          (6)  Butter the bottom of a 22 cm baking dish.  Lay the
               filo  down one layer at a time, brushing butter on
               each layer.  Turn each successive layer  a  little
               so  they are not all piled directly on top of each
               other.  The filo will hang over the sides  of  the
               dish.   Continue until you have 3-5 sheets of filo
               left.
          (7)  Pour the filling into the filo.
          (8)  Fold the filo that hangs over the  side  over  the
               filling.   Place  the  last pieces of filo on top,
               buttering each as you go.  Trim off the filo  that
               hangs  over  the  edge  of  the  dish.  These last
               pieces serve to cover the filling.
          (9)  Make two or three slits with a knife  in  the  top
               layers  of  filo  that  go all the way down to the
               filling.
          (10) Bake at 190 deg. C for 50 minutes.

NOTES

     You can vary the filling to suit your tastes.  We've thought
     of adding mushrooms.
     My husband complains about how thick and  hard  to  cut  the
     bottom  of  the  spanakopita  is.   His suggestions (none of
     which I've tried) include using more butter, and alternating
     laters of filo and filling.

RATING

     Difficulty: moderate.  Time: 45 minutes preparation, 1  hour
     cooking.  Precision: no need to measure.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Aviva Garrett
     Excelan, Inc., San Jose, CA
     ucbvax!mtxinu!excelan!aviva