This spinach pie has become one of my signature dishes since everyone who has tried it loved it and my mom now makes it often for guests too. It’s incredibly simple to make and tastes amazing! I have modified my go-to recipe for the pie since the first few prototypes to make it even easier and more according to our tastes.
Ingredients
- puff pastry (1 rolled up sheet or 6 squares)
- fresh spinach
- grated cheese (whatever and as many as you have on hand – I usually use mozzarella, but the more different ones, the better)
- very thinly sliced lamb (optional)
- 1 egg white
Instructions
Defrost the puff pastry. I can’t tell you how many times I decided to make this pie at the last minute and defrosting the pastry was the biggest pain. My preferred method is to leave it on the back of the stove while the oven is preheating, but it’s still ridiculously slow, so just save yourself the trouble and defrost first.
When the puff pastry is ready, preheat the oven to 385 degrees. Lightly oil a baking sheet lined with foil or your preferred method and lay out the pastry sheet on top – the pastry may be wider than the baking sheet, which is fine since it will be folded up. If you are assembling the pastry from squares, make it 2 squares wide and 3 squares long, carefully overlapping and joining the edges.
Arrange the innards on the center of the pastry sheet lengthwise (I use about 3/7 for the innards and leave 2/7 empty on each side), but leave about half an inch on each end so the ends can be folded up. I usually put half the spinach first, then half the cheese, then spinach again, and cheese again. Back when I used used the lamb slices, I put them in the middle of the two repetitions, but feel free to arrange it any way you like. It does work better when the cheese is not on the bottom though. You can also precook the spinach so you can put more in the pie and make it taller. Fresh spinach will wilt a lot, making a difficult to close pie really flat, so I sometimes precook it with a little bit of oil in a pan just enough that it wilts.
When all the ingredients you want are on the pastry, carefully pull the sides up and join securely on the top. It really helps if the pastry is defrosted enough to stick together, but not so soft that it all falls apart. Then roll up the ends to prevent anything from oozing out and place it in the oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on top. About halfway through the baking process, take out the pie and cover the top with the egg white so it gets that nice golden finish – it also helps keep the pastry together. When it’s done, slice it into 1-2 inch sections and serve, preferably hot.
