Kolokythopita

A courgette pie where the courgette is salted and squeezed twice, because it holds more water than spinach does.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains feta whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg courgettes, coarsely grated
• 2 teaspoons salt, for drawing
• 300 g feta, crumbled
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 1 large bunch mint, chopped
• 1 bunch dill, chopped
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 3 tablespoons fine semolina
• 150 ml olive oil
• 1 packet filo pastry, about 400 g
• black pepper

Method

1. COURGETTE HOLDS MORE WATER THAN SPINACH AND IS SQUEEZED TWICE. Salted and left, it gives up a first lot; wrung in a cloth it gives a second, and the second is usually larger than people expect. A kilo and a bit will lose the best part of two cups. One squeeze is not enough, and the pie that results has a pale wet base that no amount of extra baking will crisp.
2. AND THERE IS SEMOLINA IN THE FILLING AS WELL. Three tablespoons take up whatever the squeezing missed, during the first ten minutes in the oven while the pastry is still setting. It is insurance rather than an ingredient and it cannot be tasted.
3. Courgettes grated coarsely, skin on, into a colander.
4. Salted, turned through, and left 30 minutes. Liquid will run out freely.
5. Tipped into a clean tea towel in handfuls and TWISTED HARD. Keep going past the point where it seems finished.
6. Onion softened in 2 tablespoons of the oil, 8 minutes, and cooled.
7. Courgette broken up with the fingers -- squeezed it comes out as a dense ball -- and mixed with the onion, spring onion, herbs, feta, eggs, semolina and pepper. NO SALT: the feta has it and so has the draining.
8. A tin oiled, half the filo laid in sheet by sheet, each brushed with oil, overhanging the sides. The rest under a damp cloth.
9. Filling spread level, overhang folded in, remaining sheets on top each oiled, edges rolled into a rim.
10. Scored into portions through the top layers only.
11. A little water flicked over so the top sheets do not curl.
12. Baked at 180C for 50 minutes until deep gold and crisp underneath as well as on top -- lift a corner with a spatula and look.
13. Rested 20 minutes. Better warm than hot, and good cold the next day.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Greece · All recipes