By Brian Levy
Lovers of Greek phyllo pies know that pleasure can hinge on a crust’s ample surface area — but the key to maximizing this? A spiral.
A standard slice of phyllo pie offers a soft filling blanketed by flaky, tender, delightfully oily crust on the bottom, top and maybe — if luck delivers an edge or corner piece — a side or two. But the golden spirals known as striftopites (the collective name for “twisted pies”) lavish its irers with perfectly proportioned bites, each with a satisfying ratio of phyllo to filling.
To make a striftopita, a cook spreads a savory or sweet filling onto thin dough, which is rolled into a loose log, then coaxed into a ruched spiral. The pie is usually baked — sometimes fried — for a crisp exterior that yields to tender filling. Lots of olive oil or, less often, butter is involved. The crevices between rings allow fat to penetrate the dough, adding flavor and flakiness. And in sweet pies, those gaps provide a path for the pastry to evenly absorb the sugary syrup.
Phyllo pies, spiraled or otherwise, arrived in northern Greece when the Greek Orthodox population left Turkey under the Treaty of Lausanne, said Anastasia Miari, who has traveled across Greece documenting traditional recipes, many of which are included in her cookbook, “Yiayia: Time-Perfected Recipes and Stories from Greece’s Grandmothers.” The spirals of layered dough remain common beyond the country’s borders, including Bulgaria’s banitsa, Turkey’s börek and Moldova’s invartita.
“Phyllo pies,” Miari said, “are the Greeks’ version of sandwiches,” similarly featuring regional variations, a range of sizes and a plurality of fillings.
Pies on the Greek islands tend to be more compact than on the mainland because of a historical scarcity of firewood, said cookbook author Aglaia Kremezi, who lives on the island of Kea. The smaller the pie, the quicker it cooks.
In Greece, cheese is the most common filling — often feta combined with another type. Spinach and mixed greens are also popular, often supplemented with bulgur, raisins, green onions, leeks or cheeses. Where wild greens and fennel fronds are not an option, Kremezi recommends complementing store-bought spinach (fresh or frozen) with flavorful bitter greens like arugula, chard, beet greens or chicory, and adding a big bunch of flat-leaf parsley.
But what is nonnegotiable for avid home cooks in Greece is good phyllo, always made with flour and water, and sometimes with olive oil, lemon juice or spirits. Taming raw dough with a verga, the long, thin rolling pin used for phyllo, takes time to master — perhaps “a lifetime,” Miari said, and it bears little resemblance to the commercial stuff that is often thin and brittle enough to shatter with the touch of a fork’s tine.
The first time Kremezi made a pie for her husband-to-be, using store-bought phyllo, he pushed aside the crust and ate only the filling. “It tastes like cardboard,” she recalled him saying of the bland casing. To enhance commercial phyllo’s flavor, she suggests brushing the pie with egg wash or yogurt before baking. (A fresh-phyllo pie would simply be brushed with more oil or butter.)
Cypriot chef Marilena Joannides has made it her mission to dispel the aura of difficulty that surrounds phyllo-making. Using just a stand mixer and a small hand-cranked pasta roller, she tries to show home cooks in her classes that making fresh phyllo is easier than they might imagine.
An easier solution still, and evidence of striftopites’ popularity among Greeks, lies inside a vast expanse of display freezers at Mediterranean Foods, a Greek supermarket in New York. On a recent visit, the sounds of Greek talk radio and Greek chatter among cashiers and customers greeted shoppers who could choose from an expanse of display freezers devoted to imported spiraled pies, with fillings including a range of cheeses, spinach, pumpkin with raisins and walnuts, and apple with cinnamon. If all else fails, they are ready to bake.
Spiraled Spanakopita With Feta
The first thing you’ll notice about this savory Greek pie — called striftí spanakotyrópita in its homeland — is its alluring spiraled form. But the shape serves a purpose beyond aesthetics: It amplifies the irresistible contrast between the crunch of the crust and the tenderness of the filling by increasing the surface area of the flaky, golden, olive-oil-varnished phyllo that encases the herbaceous greens. A handful of dried currants balances the salty cheese, and fresh parsley helps bring it all to life. If you’re lucky enough to have a Greek grocery nearby, look for frozen “country-style” phyllo, which is thicker and more tender than the paper-thin variety found in most supermarkets, making it closer to the handmade dough preferred by Greek cooks.
Makes 6 main-course servings
INGREDIENTS
3 (10-ounce) or 2 (1-pound) packages frozen spinach, thawed (see Tip)
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
6 large shallots, cut into 1/8-inch slices, or 2 medium yellow onions, quartered and very thinly sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves and tender stems chopped (about 1 cup)
1/4 cup/35 grams dried Zante currants or chopped black raisins
2 tablespoons dried dill
1 teaspoon dried mint
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
3/4 cup/200 grams ricotta
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
8 to 10 ounces feta, preferably Greek sheep’s milk, crumbled (1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups)
1 pound/454 grams frozen phyllo dough sheets, thawed (see Tip)
DIRECTIONS
1: Line a half-sheet pan with parchment paper.
2: Put the thawed spinach in a nut-milk bag, fine-mesh sieve or clean kitchen towel you don’t mind staining. Squeeze and discard as much excess liquid from the spinach as you can. Set the drained spinach aside.
3: In a large pot, heat 1/4 cup olive oil over medium until it shimmers. Add the shallots, salt and pepper, and cook, stirring every minute or so, until soft and translucent but not brown, about 10 minutes.
4: Off heat, stir in the parsley, currants, dill, mint, oregano and coriander. Add the drained spinach and stir, breaking up any large clusters of greens. Add the ricotta and mix well to cool the mixture.
5: Lightly beat the eggs, then reserve 1 tablespoon of the eggs in a small bowl to use as an egg wash later. Add the remaining eggs and the feta to the spinach mixture; stir until well combined. Set the filling aside.
6: Position a rack just below the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Clear a work surface so that you have a space at least 34 inches wide by 16 inches deep to set up the phyllo.
7: Using half the dough, you want to create a rectangle of overlapping phyllo that’s 34 inches wide and 12 to 14 inches deep. Lay a sheet of phyllo at the far right of your work surface so that the edge that’s 12 to 14 inches long is vertical. Use a pastry brush to dab olive oil onto the dough; the coverage should be patchy and imperfect. Place a second sheet over the first, leaving 1 1/2 to 2 inches uncovered on the right. Oil this sheet as you did the first and repeat this offset overlapping and oiling process with half of the phyllo until the total width of connected sheets is 34 inches.
8: Use a large spoon to evenly scatter half of the filling in a horizontal line spanning almost the width of the dough, leaving 1 inch on the left and the right and 2 inches on the bottom edge. Use your hands to form the filling into a loose, even log that is about 32 inches long and 2 to 3 inches wide.
9: Fold the bottom 2 inches of phyllo over the filling, and roll away from you, pausing as you roll to brush the newly exposed, unoiled surface of the dough with oil.
10: Once you have a loose, sealed cylinder, turn it so it’s seam side down, and, beginning with the right end, coax it into a spiral. Carefully transfer the spiral to the center of your parchment-lined pan.
11: Make a second log, just as you did the first, using the remaining filling and phyllo. (You may end up with a few unused sheets of phyllo, which you can use for repairing any tears, if necessary.) Transfer the log to the pan, so one of its ends meets the exposed end of the existing spiral, and continue the spiral with the second log. Seal the loose end to the spiral, apply phyllo to any tears and generously brush the entire surface of the pie with oil.
12: Add 1/2 teaspoon cold water to the reserved egg and beat with a fork. Lightly brush the egg wash over the entire surface of the pie, including in the spiral’s cracks. Puncture the phyllo all over using a paring knife to release steam during baking.
13: Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until deeply golden brown and crisp. If any oil has leaked out of the phyllo, carefully slide the pie off the parchment onto a cooling rack. Otherwise, cool directly on the pan.
14: Let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. Cut into wedges and serve hot or at room temperature, with a side of sheep’s-milk yogurt, tzatziki or Greek salad. Wrap leftovers in aluminum foil or in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat in a toaster oven or oven.
Tip: The best and lowest-effort way to thaw both frozen spinach and phyllo dough is to leave them, still in their packaging, in the refrigerator overnight. (You can also use other frozen greens such as kale or broccoli rabe.)
