Epcot's Food and Wine Festival ~ Greece and Spanakopita

Welcome to The Virtual Food & Wine Festival. In honor of Epcot's International Food & Wine Festival a few Disney bloggers have gathered together their special culinary talents and prepared a virtual F&W Festival! You're all invited to visit each blog and virtually eat your way around the World Showcase! Please visit all of our blogs and leave comments on our dishes.

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One country that always stands out in my mind when sampling my foodie favorites in the World Showcase is Greece. As many of you may know I lived in Greece on Crete for a short time. It was at a time when I was just learning how to cook beyond the basics and experiment with new dishes. One of my favorite party foods became spanakopita.

It can be served as an hors d'oueuvres, a light meal even breakfast. You can find it at the Greece kiosk during the F&W Festival and it's only 1 snack credit!

Spanakopita

Prep Time:30 Min Cook Time:
Ready In:1 Hr 5 Min

Serves 8

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

3 green onions

1 clove garlic

1 dash lemon juice

8 oz fresh spinach stems removed or 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach - thawed, drained and squeezed dry

(4 ounce) package feta cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup Ricotta cheese

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 egg, lightly beaten

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough

3-1/2 ounces butter, melted or Olive oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350º F (175º C).
Heat 2T of butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Slowly cook and stir onions and garlic until softened and clear. Mix in spinach. Cook until the spinach is wilted. Remove from heat and let cool. About 10 min.

Chop the cooled spinach mixture finely by hand. A machine just makes a gooey mess of it. Press the spinach mixture with a wooden spoon in a colander to drain. If you're using frozen spinach or baby spinach it will be more moist so really press the moisture out.

Chop the feta cheese till it's crumbled.

Mix in feta cheese, ricotta cheese, egg and salt and pepper.

See the Hidden Mickey's in the towel?

Separate one sheet of phyllo from the stack and evenly brush with a light coating of butter or oil. I used olive oil but you can also use Canola Cooking spray on the sheets. Place another sheet of phyllo over the butter or oil and press the two sheets together. Cut the layered phyllo dough into long strips about 3 inches wide using a pizza cutter. Keep the remaining phyllo covered with wax paper and a damp tea towel to keep it from drying out.

Lay out one strip of phyllo at a time on your work surface (I use wax paper) with one of the narrow ends close to you.
Place a heaping tablespoon of filling 1 inch from the end closest to you.
Fold the bottom right corner over the filling to the left edge to form a triangle.
Fold the triangle up, bringing the point at the bottom left up to rest along the left edge.
Turn the lower left corner over to touch the right edge.
Continue turning the triangle over in this manner until you reach the end of the phyllo. Folding it as you would a flag. Repeat with the remaining filling and phyllo dough.

Place filled phyllo dough triangles on a large baking sheet with seams facing down and brush with the remaining butter or oil.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 20-25 minutes.

I froze some of these for DH's birthday on Tuesday. Just put them on a baking sheet cover and place them in the freezer. When you're ready, brush them with oil and heat them up at 350º for 10-20 min.

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Bon Appetit!
~Deb

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