Those Cakes We Like … Are A Little Bit Flaky (But In A Good Way)

Greek pastries are delicious, flaky perfection.

Today’s recipe is one of my favourite savoury snacks. It’s based on Greek spanakopita, only rather than a large pie which has to be sliced, it consists of individual filled spirals of filo (phyllo to you Americans) pastry. This recipe is perfect for summer lunches, picnics, parties, packed lunches, or just baking a large batch to share with the people you care about. And the filling is versatile enough to be adapted to your taste: Don’t like goat’s cheese? Just add more feta, or switch to another soft cheese. Want to add sundried tomatoes or roasted peppers? Go right ahead. Maybe switch the spinach and onion for leek. There’s nothing stopping you from making a sweet version using fruit and a soft Italian cheese (just don’t tell the Greeks). You can play around with this recipe as much as you like.

Traditional spanakopita. Getty Images.

A Little Slice of History

Spanakopita, is truly ancient. Its origins are pre-Roman, with references to cheese pies dating back to fifth century BC Greece. The ancient Greek poet Philoxenos refers to a cheesecake made with milk and honey which was baked like a pie that was served to him at a banquet. It was in the Epirus region in northwestern Greece that the savoury delicacy which became spanakopita has its origins: The region has a long history of foraging and using wild greens as the foundation of their diet, and it was during the Byzantine empire (fourth to 15th century AD) that spinach made its way from the Middle East to Europe and from there into the heart of Greek cooking. It was around the same time that filo pastry was developed, likely from pre-existing recipes for layered breads and flatbreads. We can thank the Ottoman empire for the thin, delicate sheets of pastry which are modern filo — they must have had some very patient and dedicated pastry chefs! All these things came together over centuries to create a dish as quintessentially Greek as the ancient ruins scattered throughout the country.

Temple of Poseidon. Unsplash.

This recipe make a total of 7 spirals. For those of you who need it, the carbohydrates for this recipe are 26.5 g per individual filo spiral, or 186 g for the entire batch.

Your Equipment

Digital Kitchen Scales

Large Mixing Bowl

Small Mixing Bowl (microwave safe) or Small Saucepan

Large Saucepan

8” Metal Pie Dish, make sure it’s a deep one

Pastry Brush

Fork

Clean Dish Towel

Your Ingredients

There is no shame in using shop bought filo pastry. None at all.

1 pack Pre-made Filo/Phyllo Pastry (there are usually 7 sheets in a pack)

100 g (1/2 cup) Feta

150 g (3/4 cup) Goats Cheese

300 g ( 1 ½ cups?) Spinach (this is why I give measurements in grams, there is no way 300g of spinach can be measured in cups - use about 3/4 of a pack)

1 Medium Brown Onion, finely chopped

20g Butter for frying the onion

50 g (1/4 cup) Melted Butter for glazing the pastry. If you want to reduce the calories in this recipe you can switch this for a low-calorie spray oil.

Salt

Pepper

Nigella Seeds or Black Onion Seeds

For a vegan alternative you could replace the feta and goat’s cheese with a jar of artichoke hearts (drained and chopped) and a few olives. And use oil instead of the butter.

The Important Bit

Firstly, I am not about to suggest that you make your own pastry here, filo is incredibly time consuming to make and requires a degree of finesse which takes a hell of a lot of practice to achieve. Buy the ready-made stuff, it’s just as good as homemade. If you really want to make your own, check out this handy filo tutorial.

Pre-heat your oven to 360F/180C.

Heat your large saucepan on a medium heat. Add your spinach. No butter or water is required at this point as the spinach will steam in its own juices. Stir until all the spinach is wilted. Drain the spinach and allow it to cool, then wrap it in a clean dish towel and squeeze out as much moisture as possible, then finely chop it. Place the spinach into your large mixing bowl.

Give your saucepan a quick clean and then heat on a medium heat. Add 20g butter and, once that starts to sizzle, add your finely chopped onion. Fry for about 10 minutes, or until the onion softens and the edges start to brown. Remove from the heat and add to your large mixing bowl with your spinach.

Add your feta and goat’s cheese and mix thoroughly with a fork. If you want to add any extras such as sundried tomatoes or roasted red peppers, this is where you do so. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

All ready to fill your pastry.

Take the first of your filo sheets and brush lightly with melted butter (or spray with low calorie spray oil). Use 2 tablespoons of the cheese and spinach filling to make a thin line along the longest side of the filo sheet. Gently roll the filo sheet into a loose tube around the filling, if it is rolled too tightly you risk the tube splitting in the next step.

Ready to roll.

Take your rolled filo tube and roll it into a spiral. Brush your pie dish with some of the melted butter or spray oil and place your filo spiral in the centre of the pie dish. Make another 6 filo spirals and position them around the outside of your first roll, this should fill the pie dish nicely. If you are scaling up this recipe then you could use a deep-sided baking sheet instead of a pie dish to contain your filo spirals for baking.

Just keep rolling until your dish is full.

Brush the top of the filo spirals with the remainder of the melted butter and sprinkle nigella seeds or black onion seeds across the top.

Scatter your nigella or black onion seeds across the top.

Bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, you’ll know they’re done because they’ll be golden and crispy.

Bake until golden.

Serve immediately with a fresh, leafy salad, maybe consider one of Hooper’s summer cocktails as an accompaniment. Or you could leave them to cool and snack on later, or take to one of the many Wonkmeets which are coming up.

A delicious, light, summer lunch.

I hope this recipe brightens your day a little. Hang in there and find the joy where you can, build your communities as that’s what we need to cling to right now. Share love, share food, share joy where you can find it — we’ll get through these trying times together.

I’ll be back next month, one year older (40!!!), but probably no wiser. I might just share my birthday cake recipe with you though — a strawberry and chocolate cheesecake inspired cake which is out of this world in terms of deliciousness.

Until then, don’t forget to donate to Wonkette if you can.

See you in August!