Spanakopizza

Spanakopizza

Ingredients

• 1 package frozen phyllo dough
• 1/2 Cup olive oil, for brushing
• 1 pound fresh spinach or 1 10 ounce box of frozen spinach
• 10 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
• 2-3 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
• 8-10 oz. low-moisture mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1/4 large red onion, sliced
• 1 roasted red pepper, diced (I used one from a jar)
• 1/2 Teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)
• Salt and pepper

Spanakopizza Recipe

The Spinach Topping

I didn’t make a filling that’s quite as complicated as a real spanakopita filling. I wanted something really clean in flavor and also easier to make. You can use fresh or frozen spinach. If you want to use fresh though, just steam it for about 1 minute until it’s wilted and then remove it.

After it cools (or thaws if you’re using the frozen), be sure to wrap the spinach in a towel or a few paper towels and wring out as much liquid as possible. You’ll be shocked how much water comes out. That would definitely mess up a pizza so make sure to do that. Then give your spinach a rough chop and mix it with your crumbled feta and chopped dill.

Prepping the crust

Instead of using pizza dough, I wanted to layer phyllo dough on a baking sheet to make a crust for the pizza. Hopefully, it’d be really flaky and resemble both pizza and spanakopita. The one change I made between this and the spanakopita I made was to use olive oil instead of clarified butter. I just figured olive oil was a bit more pizza-ish.

For the crust, I used 8 sheets of phyllo, brushing each sheet with olive oil and layering one on top of the other on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Try to keep them lined up but don’t worry if you get a small rip or bubble. The multiple sheets will cover any minor problems.

Also, I kind of wanted to mimic an edge of crust around the edge of a pizza, so I took some single sheets of phyllo dough, brushed them on one side with olive oil and then rolled them up!

If you have any edges overhanging, don’t chop them off! Just kind of roll them inside the dish to make the crust a bit thicker. If you’re using the rolled edge thing above, line the edge of the pan with those rolled phyllo sheets.

Brush the entire thing (including the edges) with olive oil and then poke some holes in the dough with a fork to let steam escape.

At some point, you’ll need to prep your other ingredients like slicing your onion, chopping the roasted pepper and grating the cheese!

Finishing the Spanakopizza

After you brush your crust with olive oil, crumble all of your spinach mixture in the bottom. Try to spread it out evenly, but you probably won’t have enough to cover the entire surface. That’s fine! Think of it more like a topping rather than a filling.

Next, add your mozzarella. I only used 1/2 pound of mozzarella for my entire pizza. You could definitely do more if you want, but I thought it was a good light amount of cheese.

Then sprinkle on your onions and roasted red peppers. Sprinkle on some red pepper flakes if you want a bit of heat also.

Important Part

Make sure to cut your pizza BEFORE you cook it. The phyllo dough is very flaky and it’s a lot easier to cut it prior to cooking it.

Bake this for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees or until the crust is lightly browned and the cheese melted. The phyllo dough will take some time to brown nicely though.

Then let it cool and serve it up!

You can see that each piece is nice and thin and it really is like both a slice of pizza and a piece of spanakopita!

I was most worried about the crust, but honestly I think I’m going to start using phyllo dough on more occasions for pizza. It turns out beautifully crispy and golden brown.

Betsy and I ate this with some salad for dinner, but you could chop it into smaller pieces and serve it as an awesome party appetizer. I liked it because it was lighter than your normal spanakopita. It didn’t feel filling at all. But it still had that spanakopita flavor.