Spanakopita

Ingredients

• 1 packet of filo pastry
• 1 packet of feta cheese
• 1 bag of frozen spinach
• 2 eggs
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Nutmeg to taste

Method

1. Use a baking tray - approximately 8 inches by 10 inches - ideally with a non-stick surface. Follow instructions on filo pastry packet and lay out the pastry.

2. Cook the spinach, drain well, and stir in the feta (broken in to crumbs).

3. Mix in salt and paper and two eggs (beat them first and keep a little aside for glazing).

4. Pour the mixture over the pastry and then fold in the pastry to cover it, as instructed on the pastry packet.

5. Using a pastry brush, glaze the surface of the pastry with egg.

6. Cook for around 40 minutes at the bottom of the oven at around 150 degrees, until it is a golden brown. I always bake it on the floor the oven so that it does not have what Mary Berry calls a ‘soggy bottom’.

7. Allow to cool to room temperature. Don’t serve too hot and definitely not immediately - this way it comes away from the tray much more easily.

Victoria Hislop is at the Hay Festival on May 27; hayfestival.com, 01497 822629.

Read our interview with Victoria Hislop in the May issue of Saga Magazine