Spanakopita (Spinach Pie)

Spanakopita is a Greek spinach pie.  In this version, the papery-thin layers of phyllo pastry hold a spinach filling with leeks, scallions, dill, feta, Parmesan, and ricotta.  Agapi Stassinopoulos said on The Martha Stewart Show that the inclusion of ricotta is untraditional but makes the pie sweeter.  She happens to be Arianna Huffington's sister, and this is their mother's recipe.

Joe and I liked this spanakopita, but we could have done without the ricotta and amped up the feta in this dish instead.  We really like feta, and I had followed the recipe and added only three-quarters of the 8-ounce block.  Our other criticism was we would have preferred a shallower pie with a lower ratio of spinach to pastry, because you get a big mouthful of spinach and little phyllo by comparison.  After all, there's three pounds of spinach in this dish!

Like all spanakopita dishes it takes some time to put together, and my least favorite part is squeezing the water out of fistfuls of spinach.  I used thawed frozen spinach, but if you go the fresh route you'll still have to steam or saute the spinach to release the water from the leaves to avoid a soggy pie.  Also, I used a decidedly non-Greek cooking vessel -- the wok.  There was so much filling it would have come up to the rim of my saute pan, making it difficult to stir.

But when it's all assembled and ready to go in the oven, the house has started to warm up and you can just sit back and wait.  And think back to last week when it was sunny and springlike, instead of cold and grey like today.  And then dig into some good spinach pie.