Greek Phyllo Seafood Rolls

Queen Dragon Mom's Note:

From spanakopita to baklava, the Greeks know how to use phyllo! Here the flaky dough encloses a mixture of spinach, cheese and shrimp, lightly seasoned with lemon. The rolls are easy to make and delicious to eat, particularly with a Greek salad of tomatoes, feta, olives and bell peppers alongside.

• Total Time: 2 hrs 14 mins
• Prep Time: 1 hrs 40 mins
• Cook Time: 34 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach, chopped, thawed
• 3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 large lemon, zest
• 1 teaspoon dried dill weed or 1 tablespoon fresh dill weed, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper, freshly ground
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced or 4 garlic cloves, pressed
• 6 ounces large shrimp, cooked, chopped (or 3 ounces cooked shrimp and cooked crabmeat)
• 16 sheets phyllo dough, thawed
• 1/4 cup butter, melted, more if needed

Directions:

1. Squeeze the spinach with your hands to remove excess liquid.
2. Put the spinach in a large bowl with ricotta, feta, lemon zest, dill weed and pepper.
3. Stir to mix well.
4. Heat the olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat.
5. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is tender, 3 to 4 minutes.
6. Add the garlic and stir 20 to 30 seconds.
7. Add the onion-garlic mixture to the bowl with the spinach; stir until well mixed.
8. Stir in the shrimp and set aside.
9. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
10. Separate 1 sheet of the phyllo dough; lay it on the work surface with the long side toward you.
11. (Keep the stack of remaining dough covered with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying.).
12. Lightly brush the sheet with a little of the melted butter; lay another sheet evenly on top.
13. Lightly brush half of the top sheet with more butter; fold the other half over to make a rectangle 8 x 11 inches.
14. Lightly brush with a little more melted butter.
15. Spoon a generous 1/4 cup of the filling along the bottom edge, leaving 1 inch of phyllo clear on all sides.
16. Lift the bottom end of the sheet and fold it over the filling.
17. Fold the sides over and press lightly; gently roll up.
18. Set the roll seam-side down on a lightly greased baking sheet (you will need 2 baking sheets).
19. Repeat to use the remaining filling and phyllo.
20. Brush the tops of the rolls with melted butter.
21. Bake until golden, 25 to 30 minutes.
22. Serve hot or warm.

Reviews

[wanda gates]

Good recipe. The next time I make this dish I'll use a strong cheese [maybe Goat Cheese]. The feta cheese was not distinctive. I'll also add some salt to it.

[Anne La Quebecoise]

We've made quite a lot of changes to the recipe, so I'm not rating it, but we 've been very pleased by the result, so I wanted to share! We started with fresh spinach, so we added them to the onion together with the garlic and cooked them for a few minutes, until done. Then we let the mixture cool, salted it a little bit, but not too much since we used 2/3 cup goat milk feta and added about 3 tbsp grated pecorino romano in step 2. We also used more garlic (6 cloves, finely chopped)and shrimps (9 ounces frozen, then thawed a steamed and cut them into 1/2" pieces) and added a lightly beaten egg to the filling (even though I'm not sure it's essential ; I just did it because I usually do when I make spanakopita). And we made this into a pie ( in a 9" pie dish), using 4 lightly buttered phyllo sheets for the bottom a 3 sheets for the top. Only 2 tbsp butter were needed for brushing the dough sheets. We cooked it for 30 minutes at 350 F. Thank you for posting, Dragon Mom!

[Chef #723491]

Excellent appy! Enjoyed by all at a recent party. These quickly went into my favorites to be made again!