Spinach and Feta Filo Pie

Going heavy on vegetables and other stuff known to be good to you doesn't have to result in boring dinners. Check this amazing pie for proof: if, unlike me, you don't like spinach (which used to be my nightmare food number 1 thanks to some slimy, overcooked early encounters), this is a great way to hide this excellent - and tasty - source of vitamins and iron amongst other, stronger flavours. This recipe is a combination of two sets of instructions for what is basically the same pie: one from Jamie Oliver, the other from Essentials magazine (I may well be this publication's sole male reader, although my interest in its contents crashes to a halt once the often imaginative food section ends). It's ideal for shared cooking duties and a bit of kitchen-based quality time: anything to do with baking frightens me (all that precision!) so I'll quite happily delegate the pastry duties to my wife, whose baking expertise makes her an ideal candidate for the undeniable fiddly task of getting the Filo pastry to co-operate. This despite my more than slight tendency to be a terrifying control freak/tyrant in the kitchen. I'll be honest with you: handling all this prep on your own is a bit of a hassle, so it's best to share the fun - and the results!

Ingredients

• 150 - 300g of spinach (the more the better)
• 1 pack of Filo pastry
• 1 pack (200g) of Feta cheese
• 2 eggs
• Generous amount of fresh dill and parsley
• 1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
• The grated zest of 1 lemon
• A few marinated peppers (from a jar - sold in the Pickles section of supermarkets), roughly chopped
• Sprinkling of salt and black pepper

How to make

Heat your oven to gas mark 4/150C. Get a large bowl, crumble in the Feta cheese, break in the eggs, add the cumin seeds, lemon zest, fresh herbs, salt and pepper. Wash your spinach and add to a moderately heated frying pan - ideally, add a drop of oil or a knob of butter on the pan before adding the spinach for extra flavour. Move around the pan until the spinach wilts - it's ready when it's shrunk in size and turned into a dark green colour. Be careful not to wilt it too much or you may end up with next to no spinach at all! Drain the wilted spinach carefully in a colander, making sure to squeeze out any excess water. Add to the bowl with all other ingredients apart from the peppers. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

Now for the tricky bit...

Take a rectangular shaped sheet of greaseproof paper, brush it with olive oil and scrunch it up in a ball and then spread it out flat again.

Take your filo sheets. If they are long rectangular sheets cut them in half so you have squares. Then take one square (carefully so the pastry doesn't tear) and place it in the top left corner of your greaseproof paper, then take another square and put it in the top right...overlapping a bit with the left. Then take two more squares and place them underneath each square at the top. Brush with olive oil and repeat until you have used all of your filo pastry. See diagram right.

Once the pastry is ready, lift the greaseproof paper on to a deep frying pan. Make sure it's in the middle of the pan. Press the sheet down so that it fits snugly in the frying pan. Spoon in the pie mix, and top with the chopped marinated peppers. Fold the excess pastry hanging over the edges of the pan inwards to close the pie and to cover the mixture, trim off the excess greaseproof paper and place in the oven for 30-35 minutes. Check that the egg is cooked through before serving.

Serve with a salad of cucumber, olives, mint and finely chopped fresh chilli, with a simple lemon juice and olive oil dressing. Bask in the warm glow of having just eaten one of your five a day.