Dice the onion and saute it until golden brown. While the onion is cooking, wash the spinach. Put it in a bowl and rub lots of salt into it. Let the spinach/salt sit for 15 minutes. This is meant to reduce the volume of spinach. An alternative to this is to barely steam the spinach (30-60 seconds). Beat the eggs. Crumble the feta cheese and add to the eggs. Note that feta cheese is fairly salty. You can replace half or all of it with ricotta cheese. Rinse all the salt out of the spinach. Add it and the onions to the eggs/cheese and mix. Also add some spices. The original recipes calls for salt, pepper and oregano. I use basil. Melt some butter (at least 2 oz). Butter the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Lay the filo down one layer at a time, brushing butter on each layer. Turn each successive layer a little so they are not all piled directly on top of each other. The filo will hang over the sides of the dish. Continue until you have 3-5 sheets of filo left. Pour the filling into the filo. Fold the filo that hangs over the side over the filling. Place the last pieces of filo on top, buttering each as you go. Trim off the filo that hangs over the edge of the dish. These last pieces serve to cover the filling. Make two or three slits with a knife in the top layers of filo that go all the way down to the filling. Bake at 375 degrees F. for 50 minutes. NOTES: * Greek spinach and cheese pie -- This recipe is from the Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas. It takes lots of time to make, but is well worth it. * You can vary the filling to suit your tastes. We've thought of adding mushrooms. * My husband complains about how thick and hard to cut the bottom of the spanakopita is. His suggestions (none of which I've tried) include using more butter and alternating layers of filo and filling. : Difficulty: moderate. : Time: 45 minutes preparation, 1 hour cooking. : Precision: no need to measure. : Aviva Garrett : Excelan, Inc., San Jose, CA : ucbvax!mtxinu!excelan!aviva : Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
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