Green Celebration. Greek REcipe

I thought I'd go green on Saint Patrick's Day by baking a Greek spinach pita (pie) using a traditional village dough instead of phyllo from the freezer section of my grocery store. Green. Greek. Greens. It works! If you're here for the recipe, click this.

Last summer I took a cooking class in Athens. Yes, Athens in Greece. It was an opportunity to learn traditional recipes from someone else. I thought I might not learn much at all, but I keep reminding myself that if I can come away with one new piece of information, then the class or endeavour or meeting or project--or whatever--will be worth the investment of time and money. And that's exactly what happened during the Athens Cooking Lessons class by Athens Walking Tours. Lucy (Loukia) was a warm and inviting instructor. She taught me two things that I didn't know. The first was that the traditional oven-roasted leg of lamb has been updated by younger cooks to include a Dijon-style mustard in the pan along with the traditional seasonings. The best thing I learned, however, was how to prepare a village-style phyllo dough. It was such an easy and tender dough. I recreated it again yesterday for the first time since my class in July of last year. I amended the recipe slightly, and made my own version of a village (horio, in Greek) spanakopita. Here is my recipe in printable format.

Traditionally, spanakopita is made without feta, but it's become common to add feta to the mix. My mother used ricotta and feta, which is what I did for this recipe. The village way has always been to use what is available seasonally. My neighbors (and friends) Caroline and Bill have been growing a variety of greens hydroponically. This week they are traveling, so they invited me to harvest their greens, which I did! I came away with spinach, two types of kale, dill, parsley and the best arugula I've ever tasted. Mixed with a sweet onion and a bunch of green onions, I was gifted a most delicious greens filling for my spanakopita. Here's my recipe. Of course, if you cannot harvest greeens from your neighbor's garden, use whatever you can harvest from your grocery store.

So Saint Patrick's Day was celebrated successfully earlier this week. It wasn't the traditional green, but my spanakopita with locally grown fresh greens was an appropriate Greek green greens tribute to the patron saint of a remarkably green country. And while Greeks do not celebrate Saint Patrick's Day, this year it seemed appropriate to do so. You can celebrate SPD again by trying my spanakopita recipe.

So, what do Greeks celebrate on March 17th? Many celebrate or recognize the first uprising of the revolution that would drive the Ottomans out of Greece to an Indepence (or re-independnce) regained in 1832. While the official celebration of the war of independence is March 25th, the people of Mani in the Pelloponese took the first steps against Ottoman rule on March 17, 1821. Celebrating Saint Patrick and Greek independence seems odd, but it worked well for me in my little corner of our war-ravaged world this year. It brought hope and rejuvenated faith.