Spanakopita - Spinach and Feta Phyllo Triangles

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted Nov 29th 2005 @ 5:34PM

The Holidays are just around the corner, which means every weekend from now until the cows come home and slip into a nice long food coma, it's all about parties. We're either going or throwing. In either case, we're cooking up a veritable snowstorm in our kitchens as hosts and hostesses with the mostesses, or taking a plate or two as a guest at a BYOB.

Party foods are finger foods and spinach and feta cheese filled phyllo triangles are ...awesome. Actually, anything stuffed inside buttery, flaky, crispy phyllo dough are pretty much awesome, but other fillings will have to wait for another post.

Now I know phyllo dough might scare you. It scared me, too. Cookbook recipes and TV chefs that use phyllo make it sound like you have to be a hard core professional to work with phyllo...keep it covered, it has to stay moist, it's fragile so be gentle. Whatever. They just make it look and sound more difficult to impress you and make themselves look like pure genius. It's not that scary. I promise.

Spinach and Feta Cheese Phyllo Triangles (mini version)

Thaw 10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, drain, then squeeze to get out as much water as possible. If you want to cook and chop your own spinach, go ahead, but I don't know how much fresh spinach you have to buy to make 10 oz. Too much math.

In a large bowl, mix together spinach, 6 to 8 oz. crumbled feta cheese, 2 to 4 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese, and about 5 turns on your black pepper mill. Okay, so I admit, I lost my pepper mill on a move, so several dashes black pepper to taste is fine. No need for salt since both the cheeses are salty enough. The cheese amounts are a range because it depends on how much cheese you like, but that's just silly anyway, because you should always use more cheese!

Unfold phyllo dough that has been thawed and put a damp (not wet) paper towel over it to keep it from drying out. Looking carefully because they are thin and might be stuck together, take one sheet of phyllo and place it on the work surface in front of you (mine was an impeccably clean tabletop). Brush it with melted butter, then place another sheet of phyllo on top, making it two sheet of phyllo stuck together in a buttery love embrace.

Using a vey sharp knife, slice the buttered phyllo the long way into 2 to 3 inch wide strips. This is also a range, since phyllo sheets come in different widths, and you should make them wide enough that you use the whole sheet.

Take one buttered phyllo strip and place a tiny dollop of the spinach filling at one end. Don't get greedy. If there's too much, the filling will burst through the pyhllo when it bakes, and though oozing spinach and cheese is never a bad thing, it doesn't look very pretty.

Starting at the spinach end, fold the edge of the phyllo across the filling, the fold back and forth up the phyllo strip as if you were folding a flag.

Repeat, until all your dough or your spinach filling is used up, whichever comes first.

Place the triangles on a cookie sheet. No need for butter, since there is a lot of butter on the phyllo. Brush the tops of the triangles with more butter, then bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven until golden brown and flaky, about 20 minutes.

Resist the temptation to pop one as soon as it comes out of the oven. Trust me, I burned my mouth on the filling.

Filed Under: Vegetarian, Ingredients, Methods
Tags: appetizers, baking, cheese, dinner, grains, hors doeuvres, lunch, mediterranean, vegetables

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-30-2005 @8:45AM Constantinos Antoniou said... Spanakopita is indeed a great dish.

Even though I hate to be pedantic, I would like to point out that Spanakopita is not the little trianges, but when you prepare this dish in an entire tapsi (appropriate metal plate).

The little triangles are usually called spanakopitaKIA (capitalization simply to show the difference), where -kia is simply a diminutive ending. (And it is not like cutting small triangles from the spanakopita; these are individually and painstakingly wrapped.

I am very happy to keep seeing Greek recipes in this site. Another manifestation that Greek cuising is not only about gyros and mousaka!

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12-01-2005 @3:03AM George said... Well, if we want to be really particular here, we'd say these are actually Spanakotyropitakia, since they contain both spinach (spanaki) and cheese (tyri). A lot of Greeks call it just "Spanakopita" even though it usually has cheese in it, so it's really just for the super-anal :)

Regardless, I concur with Sarah's post in terms of not being scared to work with phyllo. I made baklava for Thanksgiving, and I was careful to thaw the phyllo properly in the fridge and keep the "on-base" portion covered with plastic wrap and a damp towel. Dryness is your enemy: phyllo is very thin, and will easily dry out if you don't do this.

I'd also recommend having a small plate of water that you dip your fingers into and gently rub over the edge of the stack of phyllo - that should help make the top sheet stick to your finger and let you lift it off without pulling the underlying sheets along.

Slashfoodies, how about we have a week of phyllo-based recipes?
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