Spanakopita Slice | Cook with Curtis Stone | Coles

Hey guys, I have a recipe that will blow your mind. It's my

slice

of

spanakopita

. Now I call it a

slice

, because you take it out of the pan and cut it into beautiful slices. It's an absolute crowd pleaser and is actually very easy to make. What I'm going to do is use my brand new Cook with Curtis 9-inch skillet. Now, this guy will also serve as a baking utensil, which I'll show you in just a minute. But for the filling of the

spanakopita

we are going to use a little kale, right, it gives a little more structure than spinach.

So in my skillet, I don't need any oil, I just throw my kale in, put it on medium heat, you can put just a drop of water in it and hear it sizzle immediately. A little salt, a little freshly ground black pepper. You can also whiten it in the same way. I'm actually just doing this to wilt the kale a little bit so we can squeeze out all the moisture because you want it to be pretty dry. The other thing you need is just a sheet tray like this one and a towel. So, using my new spoon, I am very excited about my new spoons and my amazing knives.

I really know this will make you a wonderful

cook

when you get home, so I hope you enjoy it. Well, take your kale, you know, just strain out some of that moisture and then place the kale on your towel, just like that. Once you have your kale here, if there are any kind of large veins or stems, you can remove them, but only if they are very large because they will be too rough or stringy. The next thing is to roll it in a towel and simply squeeze it. I'll literally roll it up completely like this and then drain it, because you want to get all that moisture out.

Once it feels nice and dry, you can go ahead and transfer it directly to a glass container. Next, you are going to chop an onion. So just remove both the top and bottom. Always cut the onion in half first, I know it's a very simple thing to do, but the truth is that if you have that nice flat side, it will make your life much easier when it comes to cutting it. You can see how the root is still attached to the onion. You want that because it will keep the whole piece intact and then you turn it and cut it lengthwise that way.

Lay your knife nice and flat and cut all the way through, but don't cut through, just all the way through, and then you can go ahead and make your perfect little dice. The other thing I love about my new knife is the width of the paring knife, so you can literally use it to pick up all those onions and take them right to the pan. A little olive oil. So all we do is sauté our onion until it's soft. I have a few cloves of garlic and I'll mince it quickly. Now the garlic

cook

s a little faster than the onion, so you start with the onion.

You give it maybe two minutes, just stir it around in the pan a little bit like this. Once the onions are nice and soft, add the garlic. Okay, a little lemon zest. Well, while that's sautéing, we have some beautiful fresh herbs. I have some chives. I have a little basil, a little mint and a little parsley. I went ahead and cut it all up and it's right here and we're going to throw it in just to wilt, just 60 seconds in the pan, then you're going to combine it with some kale. Alright, all the flavor in this pan, you can imagine how much it's going to improve everything, right?

So go ahead and mix it all up. There really isn't much else to do, of course you've mixed these flavors together. Next we need to get a whisk. I have a couple of eggs, we just crack those yolks and beat it lightly. And then we mix two types of cheese. Fetta for its delicious salty flavor and fontina for its wonderful malt flavor. Now, if you can't find fontina, cheddar cheese will work too. Add both cheeses and pour in the eggs. Now you may want to season this mixture with a little more salt and pepper, but be careful because the fetta is a little salty.

Ok, our filling is done, all we have to do is assemble this wonderful spanakopita. It's very easy to do. So grab your skillet and place it on your cutting board. But first of all we must brush the pan with a little melted butter. Brush the entire bottom and sides. Now, nothing will stick to this pan. So this will slide out whether you butter it or not. But I want to spread it with butter because I want the filo dough to be very rich and rich in flavor. Go ahead and take one and place it directly on the pan, just like that and then push it to the bottom of the pan.

And then with your butter. Go ahead and brush a little more on the side here. Take the next layer of filo, place it in the opposite direction from the first sheet and give it another brush. Latest. Okay, so at the bottom of your pan, now you pick up this spanakopita filling and you just put it right in and then you can go ahead and push that filling into the bottom of the pan. Now, before you put any more filo on top, what you want to do is just take these pieces and gently fold them over the top, like this.

And you just brush from the outside in. Now here's the thing, you have two options: you can try to finish it off with another piece on the top right, multiple pieces, or you can just go ahead and break it up and that's my preference. It looks a little messy and super cool. Just pull it into small pieces and leave it like that on top. Here we go. My belly rumbles just thinking about how this will taste. It's going to be absolutely delicious. Now the beautiful thing about this spanakopita is that you can make it well in advance, just cover it with plastic wrap and leave it in the refrigerator, but I'm ready to bake it.

Put it in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes at 200 degrees. Take a look at this. I'm going to use this beautiful cutting board to serve it because I really think it just looks, I mean, you can hear it, right? Sounds as good as it will taste, guys. Just slide it out,   it's that simple. I want you to see what it looks like underneath. Crispy, golden and simply fabulous. Well, you know how good this will taste. I always finish it with a little bit of sea salt, just like that. And you can cut it however you want. You can   cut it directly into slices like this.

I'm going to cut it traditionally like a pie, directly on this side. And then until the next one. Are you ready? I have many Greek friends in Melbourne. This is for all the moms who have ever given me a piece of your spanakopita. Thank you.