Spinach Cheese Pie with Scrunched Phyllo 'Flowers'

adapted from a Relish recipe
by Kathy Lindenbaum
serves 8 easily

2 tablespoons olive oil

1¼ cups chopped green onions

1 pound frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

6 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

1½ cups whole-milk, small-curd cottage cheese

½ cup finely grated Romano cheese

1 egg

1 egg white

½ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

8 sheets Phyllo dough

6 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Heat olive oil in 2-quart saucepan. Add onions and sauté until tender, about 3 minutes. Add spinach and cook 1 minute. Remove pan from heat.

Stir lemon rind, parsley and feta cheese into spinach mixture. Combine cottage cheese, Romano cheese and egg/egg white in a small bowl. Stir until well blended. Add to spinach mixture. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg; stir well.

Oil or butter a 9 x 12 inch or 10 x 13 inch baking dish and scrape the filling evenly into it. Bake 15 – 20 minutes until top is warm and bubbly. Remove from oven.

Take 1 or 2 pieces of Phyllo and tear in half or thirds, and “scrunch” into a bunched flower shape.  Place flower in a corner of the baking dish.  Repeat until you have covered the baking dish with Phyllo flowers. Using a pastry brush, butter tops of Phyllo flowers.

Bake about 10 minutes, until Phyllo topping is browned.  Let sit for a few minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.

This is a very easy recipe! You can make the dish with all goat/sheep cheese ingredients if lactose is a concern, substituting Manouri or other sheep cheese, mixed with goat yogurt, instead of cottage cheese, and using olive oil instead of butter.  Also, if you’d like a heartier dish, you can cook ½ pound crumbled sausage or bacon, and  sprinkle in the bottom of the baking dish before you add the spinach-cheese filling and bake.