I will start with a very familiar recipe for Σπανακοπιτα, spanakopita or spinach pie. I have been cooking a type of spinach pie that can be found in books and the Internet. Oh, the humanity! Most of these Americanized recipes incorporate, oh my God, ricotta cheese. What? In Hellas they don't cook with ricotta cheese! I cooked several pies over the years and shared them with you on many happy occasions. You gave me very positive feedback and you made me feel humble and successful in your company. I failed you. I am truly sorry for this BUT I now have a chance to redeem myself by showing you a recipe that has been used by my ancestors back in Hellas.
It was several years ago when I was conversing on the phone with relatives from Hellas where I would begin to talk about my Σπανακοπιτα recipe and I just could not understand why I couldn't get them interested in it. I thought that because I was using, dare to say it, frozen spinach turned them off. So I started to use fresh spinach but that didn't do it. I was perplexed. I begun to have nightmares and even sometimes I woke up screaming incoherent Hellenic curse words. Something was wrong and I wasn't ready to admit it. Here is an image of the hideous pies I was cooking.
Fast forward eleven painful years to March of 2013 when I visited the old country for three weeks. Once or twice a week I would go to the supermarket
to buy food when I saw something very different. They had a wide variety of frozen spinach, zucchini, leek pies. Below is a package showing spinach pie rolls.
