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Country-style feta and pasta fillo pie

Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for country-style feta and pasta fillo pie.

By Emma Knowles
  • 30 mins preparation
  • 1 hr cooking
  • Serves 8
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Country-style feta and pasta fillo pie
Pasta encased in buttery, flaky layers of fillo pastry - what could be better? At its simplest, this pie's filling is made only with pasta and fetta, but we've added some other Greek flavours to ours. Make sure you drain the cooked pasta thoroughly - penne tends to hold a lot of liquid inside, so give it a good shake or risk a soggy pie. Serve the pie with a crisp chopped salad for a burst of freshness - cucumber, mint, cos and fennel would work well.

Ingredients

  • 50 ml olive oil
  • 1 Spanish onion, thinly sliced
  • 400 gm silverbeet, stems thinly sliced, leaves coarsely chopped
  • Finely grated rind of 2 lemons
  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • 1/3 cup coarsely chopped dill
  • 3 spring onions, thinly sliced
  • 2 tsp dried mint, plus extra for dusting
  • 400 gm dried penne
  • 150 gm Greek feta, coarsely crumbled
  • 9 fillo sheets
  • 80 gm butter, melted
  • For scattering: sesame seeds
  • To serve: Greek-style yoghurt and chopped salad

Method

Main
  • 1
    Preheat oven to 180C. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add onion, garlic and silverbeet stems, stir occasionally until tender (4-5 minutes). Add silverbeet leaves, season to taste, stir occasionally until wilted (3-4 minutes). Remove from heat, add lemon rind, set aside to cool slightly. Stir through parsley, dill, spring onion and mint.
  • 2
    Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente (7-8 minutes), drain well and return to pan. Add silverbeet mixture and feta, stir to combine.
  • 3
    Lay a fillo sheet on a work surface (keep remaining fillo covered), brush with butter and fold in half widthways, then brush top with butter and place in base of a 24cm-diameter springform cake tin, buttered side up. Repeat buttering and folding fillo sheets and arrange around sides of cake tin, overlapping and allowing pastry to overhang sides. Fill with pasta mixture, piling high, then fold in pastry, brushing with butter as you go. Brush top with butter, scatter with sesame seeds and extra dried mint, season to taste and bake until golden (45-50 minutes). Cut into wedges with a serrated knife and serve hot with lemon wedges, yoghurt and chopped salad.