Spinach and Feta Mini Quiches in Phyllo

Quiche is pretty straightforward--a few eggs, milk, seasonings and some kind of filling. Making the crust, however, takes a little more effort. Phyllo dough is a nice solution--and it's lighter as well. I layered four sheets of phyllo, lightly brushed with olive oil in between, and then sliced the stack into six pieces. Each sixth was pressed into a greased muffin tin cup, repeating with more phyllo as needed, and then filled with the custard mixture and baked.


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Greek Meze

It's cold and icy outside, but inside we're sitting at a little cafe in Greek islands. The sun is out, the glasses are full, and we're nibbling on meze all afternoon. To start with there are three kinds of phyllos pastries, hot and flaky just out of the oven.


There's tiropita, a combination of feta, ricotta, and onions; spanikopita, with spinach and feta; and a squash, feta, and ricotta mixture, too.

There is also marinated artichoke hearts with red peppers and garlic, sweet and salty walnuts, a variety of olives, slow cooked beef with honey and bay leaves, and hummos with pita triangles.

Spanikopita

I made spanikopita for dinner tonight, the first time since the Great Spanikopita Disaster, I think. And it was good! I was suspicious about the phyllo, as it contains no butter--and yet here it was the only kind available at both Whole Foods and Balducci's--and it tasted just fine. In addition to the phyllo, what's not to like about lots of fresh spinach, feta, and eggs? The middle layers of phyllo melt into the spinach layers, while the top and bottom are crisp and flaky. The original recipe came to me years ago from a Greek friend. It's delicious, but an added bonus is that it's also surprisingly quick to put together. We ate this with a big salad of mixed greens, pears, walnuts, goat cheese, sliced grapes, and dried cranberries.


Hot out of the oven. I probably should have brushed the butter on, instead of leaving it in little dots, which then turned brown, but it didn't hurt the flavor one bit.

Lots of spinach ...

Spanikopita
(with thanks to Mrs. A.)

olive oil
1 package phyllo dough
1/2 lb fresh baby spinach, medium chopped
1/4 c parsley
3/4 - 1 lb feta, crumbled
5 eggs
1 small sweet onion, chopped fine
salt and pepper (not too much salt, as the feta has plenty)
nutmeg
1 Tbs butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, mix the spinach, parsley, feta, eggs, onion, salt, pepper, and nutmeg til combined.

3. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking pan with the olive oil. Then take three sheets of phyllo, each folded in half and lay them in the bottom of the pan (on top of each other, not side by side.) Each sheet of phyllo should be able to be folded in half and fit perfectly in the bottom of the pan.

4. Take about 1/4 of the spinach mixture and drop it by the spoonful on top of the phyllo. Don't worry about covering everything, as it will spread out as it bakes. On top of the spinach, place another sheet of phyllo folded in half.

5. Repeat with the remaining spinach, each layer separated with a folded sheet of phyllo, and then top with two folded sheets of phyllo.

6. Brush the top with the melted butter, and place the pan into the oven.

7. Bake for 45 min-1 hour, or until the top is golden brown.