An earthy assortment of mushrooms, fresh baby greens and the salty creaminess of cheese muddled together and nestled in a flaky golden pastry! If that doesn’t sound like a fancy pie, perfect for a quick Sunday lunch, I don’t know what does.What started out as an idea to make classic Spanakopita parcels, one of my favourite Greek comfort foods, ended up as a mushroom loaded pie and trust me it was worth every bite of flavour and more! And the best part about pies? It’s a simple three part process: Make the filling, prep the pastry and in the oven! Voila, a rustic delicious pie at the table!
PREPARATION TIME: 45 minutes
INGREDIENTS
- 4 sheets of filo pastry, at room temperature (store-bought)
- 1 large red onion, finely diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- A knob of butter
- 100g white button mushrooms, sliced
- 1 large Portobello mushroom, cubed
- 50g dried porcini mushrooms
- Few sprigs of fresh thyme
- 200g baby spinach
- 250g fresh ricotta cheese, drained
- 100g feta cheese
- Sea salt, to season
- 1 whole egg
- Splash of milk
You will also need: Loose- bottomed 10″ tart tin
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
On a low heat, toss the baby spinach onto a pan and drizzle with olive oil. Once the spinach has wilted down, take it off the heat and set aside.
Soak the dried porcini mushrooms in hot water and let it steep until you need it. Since you don’t need the broth you could always save it for another day.
Turn up the heat, add the onion and garlic to the pan and sauté until it softens. Add in all the mushrooms, a few thyme leaves, season generously and fry until they catch a bit of colour.
Squeeze any water out of the spinach leaves, roughly chop and add to the pan.
Take the pan off the heat, add in the ricotta and stir through. Crumble in the feta cheese and set aside.
Carefully place the filo sheets on the work surface and lightly butter between each layer. Lightly grease the tin and place the pastry over the tin nudging it into the corners of the tin.
Place the mushroom-spinach filling into the prepared pastry shell and fold over the filo pastry. You don’t have to be precise when doing this, the more folds the better it looks and you get more of that lovely flaky golden pastry!
Whisk an egg with a splash of milk, and brush over the pastry. Place in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the pastry catches a golden brown colour.
Serve it up warm!
PRESSURE POINTS
When rolling the filo pastry, be delicate while layering and brushing with butter. You don’t want to tear through the sheets.
Make sure to cover the filo with a damp tea-towel or else it gets dry and is harder to transfer to a baking tin without damaging it.
If you give this recipe a go, I’d love to see how it turned out. Leave a comment below and share your pictures on Instagram using the tag #thecookbooklife!
Happy weekend!
Nikita xx
The Cookbook Life 