Ingredients (serves 12 as a starter, 4 as a main dish)

• 1 kg spinach leaves (fresh or frozen)
• 5 salad onions
• 50 ml olive oil, plus some to brush the filo pastry
• 12 sheets of frozen filo pastry
• 200 g feta cheese
• 4 tsp freshly chopped parsley
• 3 tsp freshly chopped dill
• salt and pepper

Preparation

1. Cook spinach leaves in boiling water for 5-6 min. Drain thoroughly, leave it to cool and then chop finely.
2. Thinly slice the salad onions. Heat half of the olive oil in a quite large saucepan. Fry the onions until softened but not browned. Add the spinach leaves, the rest of the olive oil, parsley, dill, salt and pepper. Cook in a medium heat for 5 min. Leave it to cool.
3. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F, Gas Mark 4).
4. Using 6 of the filo pastry sheets (defrosted as the instructions on the packet suggest), lay each one in a greased 25ch round baking tray, brushing each sheet with olive oil. The pastry will overhang the sides. Cover remaining filo pastry with a damp tea towel to prevent drying out.
5. Add crumbled feta cheese to the spinach mixture. Then put the spinach filling in the tray, on top of the already laid filo pastry sheets and smooth over evenly. Fold the overhanging edges of the pastry onto the filling. Brush these edges with olive oil.
6. Cut the remaining filo pastry sheets to fit the top of the pie. Lay on these sheets, brushing each one with olive oil. Press and tuck down the edges.
7. Brush the top sheet with olive oil and lightly score with a diamond or square pattern.
8. Sprinkle with water to prevent the edges curling.
9. Bake in the preheated oven for 45-55 min. until golden brown. Cut into squares to serve.

	Copyright © 1999-2000 Anne-Wil Harzing and Ron van der Wal. All rights reserved. Legal notices and colophon. This page was last modified on 7-11-99 19:03