Spanakopita

Our first Open Oak Farm CSA bag of the season included beautiful spring spinach.  This year we have been enjoying cheeses from Ochoa Cheese Factory in Albany, Oregon including a very mild feta cheese that they produce.  These two ingredients seemed like a perfect paring to make the spanakopita recipe in the Moosewood Cookbook.  I like that the mini title is "Heavenly Greek Spinach Pastry."  This is a great description!

It has been years since I made this recipe, but I have always remembered that it was well worth the time investment to work with the filo dough.  Unfortunately, there was not quite enough spinach from our CSA to make the right ratio to cheese for the filling so I included one 10 oz package of frozen spinach from Stahlbush Island Farms.  The garlic that I was fortunate to include was unbelievably fresh--the skins around the individual cloves were still soft.

The recipe was well worth the effort yet again.  It made a nice dinner for the whole family and has been delicious heated up or cold as leftovers with salsa on the side.

Spanakopita

Olive oil
1/2 onion chopped
1/4 t salt
1 T basil
1 T oregano
~ 1lb fresh spinach chopped (Open Oak Farm) 

10oz frozen spinach
3 cloves garlic (Eugene Local Foods)

1 lb crumbled feta (Don Froylan Queso Fresco)1 c cottage cheese
Olive oil
1 package whole wheat filo pastry (18 sheets) defrosted. 

Heat olive oil and saute onions until soft.  Add in salt, basil, and oregano.  The add chopped spinach and garlic and steam until garlic spinach is wilted.  Remove from heat and mix with cheeses.   

Oil a 9 x 13 baking pan.  Place one sheet of filo and drape over the edge of the pan.  Brush on olive oil. Repeat until there are 6 layers of filo on the bottom.  Spoon in half of the cheese-spinach filling.  Add 6 more layers of filo.  Then spoon in the remaining filling.  Cover with the last 6 layers of filo.  Fold the edges over and oil well.
Bake 375F for 40 minutes.  Serve hot or cold.