portabella spanakopita

step one:

saute in olive oil:

• diced portabella mushrooms
• chopped onion
• several cloves garlic, minced
• sweet red pepper
• parsley or cilantro

stir and fry for a little bit and then add

• 1/2 lb. or more chopped fresh spinach

cook until the spinach wilts

step two:

stir into the cooled veggie mix:
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese
4 eggs
dill weed

step three:

mix together 1/4 cup melted butter
with 1/4 cup olive oil

step four:

Defrost half of a 1 lb. package of filo dough.

note for filo novices! This can be tricky! Once you take the filo dough out you want it to be covered as much as possible. Otherwise it will dry out and flake apart or stick together and be unmanageable. So do something like place the filo dough on a sheet of wax paper, cover with more wax paper, and lay a slightly damp towel over that. You might want to just work with half of your filo dough at a time.

So... peel off one filo sheet and place it in a greased baking pan. Using a spoon, drizzle and/or drip on one spoonful of oil/butter and spread it gently around using the back of the spoon (this works for me better than a pastry brush). Add another layer and another spoonful of oil/butter, etc., until you've used up half of your filo dough (maybe that's 8 or 10 sheets). Once you've done that, spread the veggie, cheese and egg mixture over the top and then continue with the other half. If the filo sheets are too big for the pan, fold the edges over. Continue placing the filo sheets and drizzling the oil until you've used up your filo. Sprinkle on a few anise or fennel seeds (for good luck) and bake at 350 ° about 45 minutes, until brown and crisp.

note:

You can also make this without the mushrooms (in which case you should use more spinach).

—Susan Gilbert

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