Serpent's Coil Pastry With Spinach & Feta
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
Filling
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250g/9 ozs. fresh or frozen spinach chopped and drained
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200g/7 ozs Danish feta (or other creamy feta)
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1/2 cup toasted walnuts or pine nuts
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2 cloves garlic
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1.5 cups shredded cheese (tasty, cheddar, mozzarella, whatever you like)
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2 eggs, separated into a bowl of the whites and a bowl of the yolks
Pastry
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non stick spray or butter to grease
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14 sheets fresh filo pastry (I used brand Antoniou which is in the refrigerated section of supermarkets)
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150-200g (5-7 ozs) butter, melted
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4-5 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs
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a handful of nuts to decorate (I used almonds but pine nuts are also good)
Step 1 - Make the filling by combining the spinach, feta, garlic, walnuts or pine nuts, garlic, cheese and egg whites in a food processor and process until cohesive. Fill a piping bag with the mixture and refrigerate until needed.
Step 2 - Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Grease a 25cms/10inch pie plate with butter or non stick oil spray. Line a clean surface with a sheet of non stick parchment and take out your filo pastry. Filo dries out very quickly so have a damp tea towel on top of it to prevent it from drying. Take out one sheet and recover pastry. Brush with butter and then place another on top of this and butter and repeat until you have four buttered sheets on top of each other. Sprinkle some breadcrumbs on top as shown and then pipe the filling along the bottom.
Step 3 - Lift the edge of the paper and roll the pastry over rolling quite tightly. Lay it out carefully on the greased pie dish covering this with a damp tea towel. Repeat another two times so that you use a total of 12 sheets of pastry (4 sheets for three logs). I found that I needed a bit more to fill in the centre so I cut the last two sheets of pastry in half and did a shorter log.
Step 4 - With the two egg yolks, brush the top of the pastry well with the egg yolk mixture and scatter nuts on top. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.