Spring it On: Pie for Dinner!

Phyllo, feta, and foraged greens come together in this long-awaited family meal

From Dana’s kitchen

Spring can never come soon enough in my book. By the time the grass finally gets greener and the days start to grow longer, I’ve been itching to get outside for weeks: time to soak up some sun, linger on the porch or stoop with my neighbors, feel alive again!

For cooks, I think that yearning is even more palpable. After winter’s scarcity, spring firsts are a cause for celebration the world over in the kitchen. Baby greens! Asparagus! Glossy spring onions that burst with sweet juice when you slice into them! What’s even more exciting than seeing these local ingredients appear at the market is the culinary creativity they unleash once you get your hands on them. Finally something to work with again!

And, people – spring has SPRUNG! The forsythia are blooming bright yellow, purple crocuses are popping out of the ground, the birds are going crazy. One of the beautiful things about watching kids become cooks is seeing them appreciate how the seasons’ cycle of life in nature plays out as a re-awkening in the kitchen, too.

Sara Kate and I are both big gardeners, but of course, the first signs of spring are often found out in the wild. I’ll let her tell you about the incredible bounty around her house, but for me, what starts rising up are the chives, the mint and tons of dandelions in my yard – which means it’s time to make hortopita.

Hortopita is a savory Greek pie made with any and all spring greens, herbs and alliums with lots of briny feta cheese. It’s similar to spanakopita, but more exciting, if you ask me – why stick to just spinach when you can also toss in chard, dill, mint, scallions and all those dandelions from the yard? 

Yes, those weeds are edible — and delicious! Spring is a great time to introduce kids to foraging and food found in nature. My guide has always been Euell Gibbons, who may be best known for his kooky Grape Nut commercials in the ‘70s, but also wrote beautifully about learning to forage and cook from his mother in the 1962 classic Stalking The Wild Asparagus. 

I first tasted hortopita in the test kitchen I was an editor at the food magazine, Saveur. We were working on an issue all about Greece and one of my colleagues made a version he learned from a home cook in the mountainous village of Pertouli. If you’re feeling ambitious and want to make the spring pie with phyllo from scratch, try this recipe. It’s a great one. 

I’m more than okay with frozen store-bought phyllo: it does the trick, and my love for hortopita is more about the horto (greens) than the pita (bread), anyway. In fact, if I don’t have phyllo at all, I often still make this verdant base (minus the beaten egg) and use it to fill quesadillas and stratas. Sometimes I’ll cook up a batch of the filling, make a few wells in the pan for cracked eggs (another symbol of spring), then bake them until they’re just set. 

Our Dynamite tweak on the traditional layered hortopita is baking it in a round pie plate and folding the phyllo dough inward over the filling in a ruffled ring – it bakes up crisp and looks so pretty coming out to the table. If you don’t have a pie plate, you can do the same technique in a small casserole or skillet. You can even make mini hortopitas in muffin tins!

I like to serve hortopita with a comforting soup, like roasted tomato or butternut squash. Sometimes I’ll grill some lamb sausages or make minty keftedes meatballs to round out the meal. 

And if you think your kids won’t get excited about all those greens, just tell them they’re having pie for dinner. Trust me on this. Better yet, tell them they’re MAKING pie for dinner. I hand my son a basket and pair of kitchen shears and send him outside searching for dandelion greens. When he comes back, he washes and strips the larger leaves from their stems, chops them up along with all the other greens and herbs, and cooks them down with sauteed onions, scallions and garlic. And while the pie is baking in the oven, we’ll make a little vase full of the yellow dandelion flowers and purple chive blossoms to brighten up our table even more.

Hortopita (Spring Greens and Feta Pie)
Serves 4-6

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing 
1 medium yellow onion, sliced (about 1 1/2 cups)
4 scallions, chopped (white and green parts)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound frozen spinach, thawed and wrung dry
6 ounces Swiss chard, leaves and stems chopped
6 ounces dandelion greens, leaves chopped
½ cup lightly packed dill fronds, chopped (about 1 ounce)
½ cup lightly packed mint leaves, chopped (about 1 ounce) 
1 ounce parsley leaves and stems, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon salt 
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces crumbled feta cheese (about 1 1/2 cups)
8 sheets (9” x 14”) store-bought phyllo dough (such as Apollo or Athena brand)

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium. Add the onion, scallions and garlic and cook, stirring often, until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the spinach and stir to combine, then add the Swiss chard and dandelion greens. Cover and cook until the greens are wilted, about three minutes, then stir in the herbs and lemon zest and remove from the heat. Drain off any excess liquid from the pan. 

In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg with the salt and pepper. Stir in the greens and feta cheese; mix well to combine. 

Brush a 9-inch pie plate with olive oil. Imagine the pie plate is a clock and lay a piece of phyllo dough across from 12 to 6 with the edges hanging equally off the sides. Lay another piece of phyllo dough from 1 to 7, then another from 2 to 8, and so on until all 8 sheets have been placed. Press the dough into the bottom and along the edges of the pie plate. 

Drain off any excess liquid that may have collected in the bottom of the bowl of greens. Transfer the greens mixture to the pie plate and spread it out evenly. Fold the overhanging phyllo over the top and around the edges of the pie, crimping it to make a ruffled edge with just a bit of the greens mixture peeking through the center.

Bake the pie until the greens mixture has set and the phyllo is golden browned, about 45 minutes. Once cool enough to handle, cut into slices and serve warm or at room temperature.