Frances Vavloukis stopped by our kitchen last Wednesday, March 9th to talk with us about all things Greek. Armed with her family’s 40-year-old broomstick, she began rolling out phyllo dough to serve up some Spanakopita and Baklava. She also hand-tossed a fantastic Greek salad. At the end of the evening, Frances was kind enough to share her recipe for Spanakopita, and we at COOK want to spread the love. Look below for photos and recipes to make your own Spanakopita at home!

Phyllo Dough:
4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup water
flour
shortening (Crisco Vegetable Shortening)

1. Place all ingredients into a large bowl. Mix and knead dough until smooth and elastic. (Add additional flour as needed.) You can use a KitchenAid mixer as well.

2. Divide dough into 16 small balls. Roll in flour and set aside.

3. Sprinkle rolling surface with flour to prevent sticking. With a  long narrow rolling pin or broomstick handle, roll dough until small pancake in shape. Set aside.

4. Spread each flatten dough with a tsp of Crisco. Just enough to coat but not saturate. make a stack of 4 with 4 layers in each stack. No Crisco on top. Set aside.

Spinach Filling
2 lbs fresh baby spinach, washed and drained
1/2 lb feta, crumbled
2 scallions, chopped
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup cottage cheese
3 eggs
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

1. Place all ingredients in a big bowl. Mix well with your hands. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 1 stick butter and 1/2 cup shortening. Grease a half sheet pan including sides.

3. Sprinkle rolling surface with flour to prevent sticking. Again, with your rolling pin, roll dough until paper thin. Stretch dough while rolling with your hands and place in pan. Brush phyllo with melted mixture. Repeat with second stack of phyllo.

4. Add spinach filling and spread evenly. Roll third and fourth stack of phyllo, brushing in-between each layer and place on top of the filling. Brush remaining butter mixture on top. Tuck and twist corner and brush with melted butter mixture again. Poke 7 holes with a fork.

5. Bake for 1 hour or until golden brown.

Happy COOKing, friends!