Spanakopita

As tradition built it

Makes one large pie. About 1.5 hours.

Ingredients

An outline, not yet a recipe: the tradition's method with its ingredients named but not weighed. Quantities are being added from sources inside the tradition, lead dishes first.

• 500 g strong flour
• 100 ml olive oil
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• 210 ml water
• 200 ml olive oil, for brushing between layers
• 1 kg spinach, washed
• leeks, onion, fresh dill
• 300 g feta, crumbled
• 1 egg

Method

1. Mix the flour, oil, vinegar, salt and water to a smooth dough. Knead well, rest at least 30 minutes, covered.
2. Divide into small balls, and stretch each by hand, over the backs of floured hands or a floured cloth, working from the centre outward, turning and pulling repeatedly, until thin enough to see through. Do not roll.
3. Wilt the spinach and leeks, squeeze out excess liquid thoroughly, chop.
4. Combine with dill, crumbled feta and the beaten egg.
5. Layer half the stretched sheets in an oiled tin, brushing each with oil as it goes down.
6. Spread the filling, top with the remaining sheets, again brushing each with oil.
7. Bake about 45 minutes until deeply golden and shattering.

What a modern chef changes

The stretch respected as the real technique, and any surplus sheets dried rather than wasted

Rung 1

Method

1. Give the dough its full rest, and do not shortcut the stretch. A rolled sheet, however thin, bakes denser because its gluten has been extended under tension in one pass rather than relaxed and re-stretched; this is the single biggest difference between a home-made pie that shatters and one that does not.
2. Dry any surplus stretched sheets in a dehydrator for storage, standard practice for surplus filo, rather than compressing them back into a ball, which ruins the structure you have just built.
3. Squeeze the spinach harder than feels necessary. A wet filling steams the surrounding filo from the inside and is the second most common cause of a soggy base.