As a child, I hated spinach.  My mother tried every tactic of persuasion to get me to eat it—to no avail.  Yes, I knew it was good for me—just like every food that seemed disgusting was “good” for me.  No, I didn’t want to be like Popeye—who would want to be a one-eyed, muttering and misshapen seafarer who wasn’t real?  Yes, I knew I wouldn’t get dessert if I didn’t eat it—as if dessert was ever on the menu.  And, yes, I knew all about the starving children in Africa—maybe if we shipped them all of the spinach I refused to eat they wouldn’t be starving any more.

My mom—usually a wonderful cook—cooked blocks of frozen spinach until it was a gray, soggy glob of compost.  If not this, she used canned spinach, which was already a gray, soggy glob of compost.  Presentation was the key reason I refused to eat it.

Spinach was first presented to me in an edible form at a Greek restaurant where I worked as a teenager.  It was spanakopita, the savory spinach, Feta cheese and phyllo pastry pie.  The spinach was bright green and chewy, with a tart saltiness from the cheese and fresh lemon, and a buttery crispness from the thin layers of golden brown pastry.  I became a convert to spinach on the first bite.

Spanakopita literally means spinach pie in Greek (spanaki=spinach, pitta=pie).  It is more of a comfort food than a main course entrée, usually served in Greece as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack.  Although traditionally served encased in layers of paper-thin phyllo dough, variations using thicker, traditional pastry crusts or puff pastry dough are not uncommon; also not uncommon is substituting the Feta cheese with ricotta cheese or a less salty, creamier goat cheese.

My recipe for spanakopita follows the principles I generally use for all of my successful recipes:  it is easy to make, delicious and can be varied in a multitude of ways by the omission of some ingredients and the addition of other ingredients.  This flexibility is due mostly to the fact that I use puff pastry—purchased frozen at the grocery store—rather than using phyllo pastry or rolling my own pastry.

Puff pastry is easy to work with, provided it is fully thawed but also still cold.  Once it reaches room temperature or warmer it becomes very sticky.  It is best to thaw it overnight in your refrigerator.  If it’s even slightly frozen it is un-pliable and tears easily.  Once you get use to working with it, these obstacles can be easily overcome.

My version of spanakopita calls for frozen, whole, cooked spinach, which has been thawed and drained.  Using fresh, blanched spinach is fine if you want to spend the time blanching it, not to mention spending ten times the money you would on frozen spinach to yield the same amount of spinach my recipe calls for.  I like to keep the cost down on this recipe—and frozen spinach does the trick without adversely effecting flavor or texture.

Keeping the cost down on spinach allows me more of a budget to spend on a good cheese as part of the filling.  Although I love Feta cheese, I prefer softer, less salty, creamier goat cheeses.  Any cheese you prefer will do in this recipe, though—even cream cheese if that’s all that there is in your fridge.  Adding more cheese than I call for in this recipe is up to you.  Adding less cheese will make it no less delicious.

My one departure from traditional spanakopita is that I add sliced, sautéed mushrooms to the filling.  I love mushrooms, especially with spinach.  If you hate mushrooms, don’t use them.  If you want to “go California” on your spanakopita, add some sliced sun-dried tomatoes or sliced artichoke hearts to the filling instead—you can cut back on the bread crumbs the recipe calls for if the sun-dried tomatoes haven’t been re-hydrated, allowing the juice from the other ingredients to soften them.

Finally, whatever size you choose to make your spanakopita—using the two-sheets-per package of puff pastry—is up to you.  My recipe calls for both sheets to be cut into six, fairly even squares, which would be six main course portions, using one sheet for the bottom of the filling and one sheet for the top.  Sometimes, I’ll cut one sheet into six squares, the second sheet into twelve squares—yielding, respectively, three main course portions and six snack portions or portions to serve as a side with a main course entrée such as grilled lamb, fish or chicken.   Any way you portion it, and any way you serve it, it is delicious—even if you think that you hate spinach.  Give it a try—my Mom and Popeye would be proud.

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