Pie of Spinach

This is a delicious dish that can be your main course or you can eat it as an appetizer. You can serve it warm or at room temperature: it is the ideal dish for any moment, exspecially in the summer time! This is only one kind of pie that you can prepare with vegetables: I really like them so I'll write some other tasty recipes in the next days!

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DOUGH

150 g of Flour

1 or 2 Eggs

50 g of Butter

2 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Salt

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FILLING

400 g of Spinach

250 g of Ricotta cheese made from cow's milk

15 g of Butter

2 Eggs

30 g of Parmesan

Salt

PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 45 minutes

WINE: Castel del Monte Chardonnay Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION

To make the dough, put the flour on a clean surface into a mound, add 1 or 2 eggs (depending on the consistency of the dough), the pieces of butter, the oil and the salt. Mix all together until you obtain a solid and smooth dough. 

Place the dough on a floured board and roll out it 0,5 mm thick and then cover the bottom and the sides of the pie pan.  Preheat the oven to 180-200 °C.  Now prepare the filling. Wash the spinach and shake off excess water. Place it in a large pan with 2 glasses of water. Cover with a lid. Cook gently for about 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and drain. Transfer the spinach to a chopping board and chop finely. 

Place the chopped spinach in a pan; add the butter, season with some salt and cook again for about 5 minutes until the butter is melted.

Transfer the spinach in a bowl; add 1 egg, the ricotta cheese and the Parmesan.

Mix all together until the mixture become smooth.  Put the mixture over the dough and sprinkle with some Parmesan. 

Bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until the pie is golden brown.

In the meanwhile prepare 1 egg hard-boiled. Then cut it into 2 halves and when the pie is ready put them over it.  Serve warm, or at room temperature. This is the result:

BUON APPETITO!