Spanikopita Triangles

I made these because we bought nabulsi cheese from the halal market and I had no idea what it was or what to do with it (but it looked delicious!). If you can't find nabuli cheese, you can, of course, always go with the more traditional feta.

You can make this really easy on yourself by making a sort of spanikopita "pie" instead of making individual triangles. If you want to do that, you should use 10-12 sheets of phyllo dough (butter and layer half, top with filling, then top with the rest of the buttered and layered sheets.)

By the way, if the thought if phyllo dough seems daunting to you, be aware that it is very easy to work with and always looks impressive. The only trick is to keep the phyllo dough from drying out:

Top phyllo dough with waxed paper (most brands come with a sheet) and then top that with a damp kitchen (not terry cloth) towel. Every time you take out some phyllo dough to work with, cover the rest with the towel. Re-wet towel if necessary.

By the way, most recipes throw a handful of parsley into the spinach mix. I'm not a huge fan (plus I didn't have any) and they were fine without them.

This makes about a dozen.

Ingredients

1/2 lb. phyllo sheets
10-12 oz. frozen spinach
1-2 T. olive oil
2 whole shallots
1 1/2 cups nabulsi cheese (can use feta)
1 T. black caraway seeds (optional, but only because they're hard to find)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 stick + (4 T.) butter, melted
Pepper (and maybe salt, but cheese is salty!) to taste

Directions

1. Saute scallions with olive oil for a couple of minutes (until tender).


2. Throw in the spinach and cook until no longer frozen. Add salt and pepper, then cook for a minute or two more. Take off burner to cool.

3. Take cooled spinach and chop a little more if necessary. You can refrigerate this in advance if you want to.

4. Add caraway seeds and cheese to cooled spinach mixture; mix in well.

5. Add beaten egg and stir until spinach is well coated. Set aside.

6. Preheat oven to 350.

7. Cut phyllo dough into strips (I like mine about 3-4 inches wide, but you can make them bigger or smaller depending on how big you want your triangles). Make sure you cover the strips with wax paper and a wet towel!

8. Peel off 3 sheets; brush each with butter and line them up on top of each other

9. Place a dollop (maybe 1/4 cup worth) onto one of the corners, and fold in triangles until you get one triangle.





10. Brush both sides with butter and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper

11. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and looking cooked!