Spanakopita, Greek Spinach Triangles

          When I bought Phyllo ( fillo ) Pastry, after making Baklava, I wanted to try out a few more dishes using the leftover pastry. The first thing that came into my mind was this Greek savory pastry, Spanakopita. It's basically a spinach filled pastry and it's made like a pie or triangles ( like samosas ). The phyllo pastry is crispy and light and the filling with spinach and three different cheese is so flavorful and delicious. Once you are comfortable in handling phyllo sheets ( they are little delicate to handle ), making Spanakopita is actually not very difficult. We can layer the sheets ( like baklava ) with the spinach filling, bake it and slice it, or make it in the shape of individual triangles, either way they taste delicious..

Need To Have

• Phyllo Pastry Sheets - 5
• Butter for brushing the pastry sheets

For The Filling

• Chopped Spinach - 5 cups
• Chopped Spring Onions - 1/2 cup
• Onion - 1 medium, chopped
• Chopped Dill Leaves - 1 tablespoon
• Ricotta Cheese - 1/4 cup
• Crumbled Feta Cheese - 1/2 cup
• Parmesan Cheese - 1 tablespoon
• Nutmeg Powder - a pinch
• Freshly Ground Pepper - 1/4 teaspoon

Method

          Thaw the Phyllo Pastry according to the instructions on the box. For the filling, heat a little olive oil, saute the chopped spinach, saute it till dry, remove and keep.

          Heat some more oil, add the chopped onion and spring onions, again saute till dry, remove and keep. Take the spinach, add the sauteed onions and chopped dill leaves.

          Add the feta cheese, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, nutmeg powder, pepper powder, mix everything together and keep, the filling is ready.

          I have used 5 sheets of phyllo pastry, I divided each sheet into four parts, so totally I had 20 sheets. Now take a sheet, apply some butter, layer with another sheet and brush with some more butter.

          Place a little filling in one corner, then fold it as shown.

          Keep folding, till you have a small strip at the end, apply little butter and seal it and brush the triangles with some more butter.

          Do the same with all the sheets. Bake the triangles at 180 C for 25 to 30 minutes, till they turn golden, remove and serve them warm.

Note
We can use all butter, or a mixture of butter and olive oil, or only olive oil too.
Use spinach leaves only, leave out the big stems.
Don't leave out the spring onions and dill leaves, they all give a unique flavor.
While folding the triangles, keep the other phyllo sheets covered with a damp towel, otherwise they'll become dry and brittle.
I got 10 Spanakopita triangles, using 2 sheets per triangle.