Devouring Literature: Turning Fiction Into Food: Popeye's Spanakopita

Popeye the Sailor, again not a literary character (although a comic strip one!) was good inspiration for the following recipe. When thinking of the characters of this iconic comic in terms of food, you have not only spinach loving Popeye, but girlfriend Olive Oyl, and her old beau Ham Gravy and Popeye's ward, Swee' Pea. And who can forget J. Wellington Wimpy the hamburger-loving moocher (a topic for a different blog!)? What a set of characters!! And why not create a recipe with one of those characters in mind?!

As most of us know, strong-arm comic strip character, Popeye the Sailor, has always toted that spinach makes you big and strong...which, as a child, I could even see that parents used this excuse to make me eat spinach, (mom and dad, you never had me fooled!), but as an adult, I love spinach. And I'm not the only one...as it happens, Popeye's popularity actually increased the sale of spinach in the U.S., needless to say, many a farmer became a Popeye fan!

Although one would likely not consider Popeye Greek, I thought that preparing Spanakopita would be a good homage to this spinach lover. I have always enjoyed Spanakopita, but have never made it before...that phyllo pastry seems so daunting! But, alas, I discovered that it doesn't have to be so scary...its actually fun and simple to prepare.

As many of you know, Spanakopita is a Greek pastry. It has a filling of chopped spinach and feta cheese, onions (or scallions) and some eggs...that sounds just about perfect to me!!! The filling is wrapped in the shape of a triangle in phyllo pastry. It is mostly eaten as a snack in Greece, but I think that a person could spread it out into a meal if they were so inclined.

Here is a recipe that I found to be simple and tasty. I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large onions, chopped
2 pkg frozen chopped spinach - thawed, drained and squeezed dry (10 ounce)
2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
2 tbsp all - purpose flour
2 pkg feta cheese, crumbled (4 ounce)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 pkg phyllo dough (16 ounce)
3/4 lb butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Heat vegetable oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Slowly cook and stir onions until softened. Mix in spinach, dill and flour. Cook approximately 10 minutes, or until most of the moisture has been absorbed. Remove from heat. Mix in feta cheese, eggs, salt and pepper.

3. Separate one sheet of phyllo from the stack and evenly brush with a light coating of butter. Place another sheet of phyllo over the butter and press the two sheets together. Cut the layered phyllo dough into long strips about 3 inches wide. Keep the remaining phyllo covered with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out.

4. Lay out one strip of phyllo at a time on your work surface with one of the narrow ends close to you. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling 1 inch from the end closest to you. Fold the bottom right corner over the filling to the left edge to form a triangle. Fold the triangle up, bringing the point at the bottom left up to rest along the left edge. Turn the lower left corner over to touch the right edge. Continue turning the triangle over in this manner until you reach the end of the phyllo. Repeat with the remaining filling and phyllo dough.

5. Place filled phyllo dough triangles on a large baking sheet and brush with the remaining butter. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 45 minutes to 1 hour.