Grandma’s Spinach Pie

Very few foods excite my wife like spinach. Odd, because whenever I’ve attempted to boil it up and slap it down next to some snags and mash she doesn’t think I’m much of a cook. What it needs, apparently, is to be mixed in with cheese, be it Feta, Ricotta or, as in the case of this pie, Mozarella.

Serve this pie with a salad or as a side. either way, it’s going to be the talking point of any meal you include it in. Or, as my kids (and wife) did, you can scoff the thing down in one frenzied sitting, like pigs at a trough, before your hard working father (and husband), who incidentally cooked the pie, returns to the house for dinner. Just saying 😉

You will need:

two sheets of shortcrust pastry

750g spinach (frozen is fine but if fresh, remove and toss spines)

2 onions, peeled

1 clove garlic

80g butter (30g + 50g)

3 tablespoons plain flour

1 1/2 cups milk

250g shredded Mozarella cheese

6 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

pinch nutmeg

STEP ONE: Using a blender, wizz up the spinach. Not too much, you just don’t want whole . Set aside.

STEP TWO: Using a blender, wizz up the onion and garlic. Just a few seconds is fine. Set aside.

STEP THREE: Melt 30g butter in pan, then add the onion mix. Once brown, add the spinach and mix together. Set aside to cool.

STEP FOUR:  Melt 50g butter in pan, stir in plain flour and gradually stir in the milk. Stir until sauce thickens.

STEP FIVE: Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

STEP SIX: Whip up the eggs, salt, pepper and nutmeg until combined.

STEP SEVEN: Now bring the three elements, spinach, white sauce and eggs, together with the cheese. Set aside.

STEP EIGHT: Lay out a sheet of pastry into your pie dish and cut to shape, pour in the lovely green mixture then cut strips of pastry and lay across the top (just so it look spesh).

STEP NINE:  Bake at 180 degrees for 40 minutes: until an inserted knife comes out clean.

STEP TEN: Cut yourself a slice before it disappears and you’re left with nothing but an insincere apology from very satisfied looking kids. And their mother.

When not typing away over here and checking his stats every two minutes

Bruce Devereaux hangs out at his ‘BIG FAMILY little income’  Facebook Page.

 ’raising a family on little more than laughs’