SPINACH ARTICHOKE AND RICOTTA PIE BY ANDREA LOVE
Andrea Love of Eatnik Food is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and nutritionist, recipe developer and food photographer from Brisbane, Australia.
Andrea is a self-taught home cook and loves to create food that makes people happy, whether it be wholesome or indulgent (or a little bit of both). Eatnik is her space to share her recipes that she hopes others will feel inspired to recreate themselves at home.
She believes that food is wonderful and has the ability to bring nothing but enjoyment to every aspect of life. It is social, artistic and creative just as much as it is sustenance – combine it with a healthy mind and lifestyle and you dramatically improve quality of life.
Follow Andrea Love of Eatnik Food on Instagram or Facebook @eatnikfood.
The spinach and ricotta combination is an age old favourite; combine it with any type of crunchy pastry and you’ve got a winner. The addition of artichoke adds another texture to the pie, as well as the crunch of the pine nuts. This pie is encased in a thin, crackly filo pastry – a very forgiving ingredient that brings about that rustic feel to any dish it graces.
Ingredients
2 tsp olive oil
1 brown onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 packets frozen spinach, defrosted
500 g ricotta cheese
1 cup artichoke hearts, chopped roughly
100 g pine nuts, toasted
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 eggs, lightly beaten
7 sheets filo pastry
50 g butter, melted
2 tsp sesame seeds
Method
Preheat oven to 180ºC. Line the base of a 20 centimetre springform tin with baking paper.
Heat olive oil in a fry pan, add onion and garlic and saute until translucent, approximately five minutes. Set aside to cool for a further five minutes.
Meanwhile, squeeze as much water out of the spinach as possible. Add to a large bowl along with ricotta, artichoke, pine nuts, nutmeg, salt, pepper and eggs. Add in cooled onion and garlic and stir together until well combined.
Brush springform tin with melted butter. Carefully layer filo pastry allowing parts to spill over the edge of the tin. Brush with butter in between each layer.
Pour in ricotta mixture. Fold over filo pastry hanging over the edge to cover the top of the pie. Brush with a little more butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake for 30 minutes until filo is golden and crunchy on top. Serve with a fresh side salad.
Serves 8.
