home...harvest...cook: Spanakopita

With an overgrown spinach patch in desperate need of picking, I set about my very first spanakopita adventure!

I found this fantastic recipe on Taste.com http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/spanakopita-2/bee85cd6-2286-42ba-9542-b45b0aeb390c and didn't really need to change anything.

Here's what I did:

- Prepare the spinach first - it's fiddly. I picked my spinach from the garden, and removed snails as I picked. Then once in the kitchen, I washed each leaf very carefully and thoroughly, finding another TWENTY SNAILS. I'm not even exaggerating. Give it a really good wash and remove the heavy stalky bits if any (mine was full of stalks because it was over grown - not the dainty baby spinach). I used approx. 1kg of spinach. The recipe link above says 1.2kg, but I think it 1kg was the right amount. Make sure the spinach is well drained. Roughly chopped.

- Heat a heavy cast iron pot on stove

- Add a glug of olive oil

- Add 1 large brown onion , 1 bunch of spring onions both finely chopped

- Cook/stir for a minute or two, then add 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic

- Cook until onions are done, translucent and smelling oh so delicious

- Now is a good time to preheat the oven to 180 Celsius

- Add the spinach, along with 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh dill, to the onions and garlic and cook for about 3-4 mins until the spinach is wilted. This took longer than I expected because there was such a lot of spinach and my pot was only just big enough, so it took time to get all the leaves hot and wilted.

- Tip everything into a colander and leave it to drain and cool down
- Get your filo pastry ready (ie remove from fridge or freezer to defrost)

- While that's all happening, prepare the cheeses: (combine 250g crumbled feta cheese, 150g ricotta cheese, 4 tablespoons freshly and finely grated grana padano)
- Once your spinach mix has cooled a bit, add the cheeses, 4 eggs, salt (not much, if any) and pepper to taste, freshly grated nutmeg (I did about 1 tsp because I REALLY like nutmeg, you may wish to use a little less). Just a note on nutmeg, don't fuck around with the powdered, pre ground stuff. It sucks. Get the whole nutmeg (from the supermarket in the spices section), and grate it yourself. I use one of these http://us.microplane.com/microplaneclassicserieszestergrater.aspx for nutmeg, citrus zest, and especially parmesan (it makes it so sexy, light and fluffy).
- Prepare the baking dish - I used an approx. 3 litre rectangular lasagne dish.
- Melt about 120 g of butter - I used salted butter, because it's way more delicious than unsalted (and this is why I advise above to only use a small amount of salt in the spinach), and this is what I had available.
- Brush the inside of the baking dish with melted butter, and lay your first sheet of filo on top. Then generously slap on another layer of butter, another layer of pastry, and keep this up until you've layered 5-6 sheets (I did 5, but I think i'll do 6+ next time, because pastry is so tasty).
- Carefully place the spinach mix into the pastry and spread out.
- Cover the spinach with another 5-6 sheets of filo and butter.
- Make sure you butter the top sheet, then take a sharp knife and score a funky criss-cross pattern in the top. This really makes a difference because you get lots more delicious, golden, buttery crunchy pastry edges.
- Bake for 40-50 mins, until the top is golden and perfect. Set aside for 10 mins.
- Melt a little more butter, and add 1 tablespoon of fresh dill, chopped. Give it a stir, then pour over the top of the cooked spanakopita.

- Cut and enjoy!

We ate this on its own, in all its glory, on a plate. It made about 5 serves for grown up humans, and a little bit for the toddler.

If you give this recipe a try, please let me know what you think. I don't know if it's anything near a traditional spanakopita, but it was the best one I've ever tasted! Next time I plan to add some fresh mint when the spinach is cooking, just for something a little different.

Photos below :)