This vegetarian Greek pastry is a great way to use up lots of those harvested Pigweed leaves I wrote about in my earlier post, Edible Weeds. Try to get as many soft, new leaves as you can. Once the plant matures the leaves become veiny and tough. A few of those won’t matter, as the leaves are cooked anyway. Or you can just use fresh spinach, or a mixture of the two. This one is also great for company. You can double this and fill two 9x13 pans. You will have to assemble and freeze this in extra 9x13 pans—buy the foil ones if you need to.

If you’ve never worked with filo dough before, here are some tips: buy it from the frozen section, but thaw one of the wrapped rolls for a couple of hours before assembling this meal. Don’t unwrap it until just before you are ready to use it. It is thinner than paper and so will dry out quickly. To prevent this, keep a clean, damp towel on top of the stack of filo sheets while you are working with each one.

SPANAKOPITA

Serves 6-8

• 2-1/2 lbs. fresh spinach or pigweed leaves, washed, stemmed & chopped
• 2 cups minced onion
• 5 medium cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 3 Tablespoons flour
• 2-3 cups packed crumbled feta cheese (1 lb.)
• 1 cup cottage or ricotta cheese
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• black pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup olive oil, for the filo dough
• 1 lb. filo pastry leaves, approximately 20 leaves, thoroughly defrosted

Oil a 9x13 baking pan. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a Dutch oven. Add onion, salt and herbs, and sauté for about 5 minutes, or until the onion softens. Add spinach and/or pigweed leaves, turn up the heat, and cook, stirring, until the leaves wilt (5-8 minutes). Stir in the garlic.
Sprinkle in the flour, stir, and cook over medium heat 2-3 more minutes. Remove from heat.
Mix in the cheeses. Taste to correct seasonings, adding lots of black pepper.
Place a sheet of filo dough in the oiled pan, letting the pastry edges climb up the sides. Brush lightly with olive oil, and add another sheet. Keep going until you have a pile of 8 oiled sheets. Add half the filling, spreading it to the edges, then repeat with 8 more sheets of oiled filo, followed by the remaining filling. Layer the rest of the filo over the filling, brushing oil in between. Oil the top and tuck in the edges. Tightly cover the pan with foil and label with the name and baking instructions.

TO SERVE

You can either thaw the casserole ahead of time, or place the frozen, uncovered pan into a cold oven, heat and bake. Bake the uncovered Spanakopita in a 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until golden and crispy. Cut into squares and serve hot or warm. Goes great with a Greek salad on the side.

See more Make Ahead Meal recipes