Spinach and feta fatayer

The flavour of the feta through the spinach with the spices is very moorish, I ate these regularly as a daytime snack throughout Syria. In Syria they used a pizza dough as the base, I've decided to use puff pastry in this recipe.

• serves

  10

• prep

  40 minutes

• cook

  30 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 500 g fresh spinach, blanched
• olive oil 
• 1 onion, finely chopped 
• ½ tsp ground allspice 
• 1 tbsp sumac 
• salt and pepper
• 250 g Persian feta 
• 400 g puff pastry
• flour, for rolling

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180°C/Gas 4.

Make sure that the spinach has all the excess water squeezed out, and then roughly chop.

In a fry pan heat some olive oil; fry the onions until golden brown. Add the spinach, allspice, sumac and season well. Make sure all ingredients are mixed well. Add the feta and once it starts to melt remove it from the heat.

Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface to 3–4 mm thick. Cut the puff pastry into 10 cm rounds with a pastry cutter. Take a round of puff pastry and lay it flat in your hand and put a dessertspoon in the middle.

To make a traditional three-sided pie, lift up two sides and pinch the neighbouring edges together, making a thin-ridged joint. Lift the third side and join its two edges to the other sides to make a pyramid with a rounded base.

Seal the openings by pinching the edges firmly all the way to the top. Do this with all the discs.

Place the pies on foil on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes until golden brown.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.